Sirex Explained

Sirex is a genus of wasps in the family Siricidae, the horntails or wood wasps. They inject eggs with fungal endosymbionts into wood. The fungus is contained in a mycangium which nourishes it with secretions, and in turn it digests wood for the wasp larva.

The genus includes economically important pests; S. noctilio, known simply as the 'Sirex woodwasp' is an invasive species, having spread widely across the world from its original range.^{[1] [2]}

Species

• Sirex abietinus Goulet, 2012
• Sirex areolatus (Cresson, 1868)
• Sirex behrensii (Cresson, 1880)
• Sirex californicus (Ashmead, 1904)
• Sirex carinthiacus Konow, 1892
• Sirex cyaneus Fabricius, 1781
• Sirex ermak (Semenov, 1921)
• Sirex hispaniola Goulet, 2012
• Sirex juvencus (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Sirex longicauda Middlekauff, 1948
• Sirex mexicanus Smith, 2012
• Sirex mongolorum (Semenov)
• Sirex nigricornis Fabricius, 1781
• Sirex nitidus (Harris, 1841)
• Sirex nitobei Matsumura
• Sirex noctilio Fabricius, 1793
• Sirex obesus Bradley, 1913
• Sirex sinicus Maa
• Sirex tianshanicus (Semenov)
• Sirex torvus Harris, 1779
• Sirex varipes Walker, 1866
• Sirex vates Mocsáry
• Sirex xerophilus Schiff, 2012

Further reading

• Hajek, A. E., et al. (2013). Fidelity among Sirex woodwasps and their fungal symbionts. Microb. Ecol. 65(3) 753–62.

Notes and References

1. http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7248.html Sirex Woodwasp – Sirex noctilio.
2. Hurley, B. P., et al. (2007). A comparison of control results for the alien invasive woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, in the southern hemisphere. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 9(3), 159–71.