The superfamily Siricoidea is an archaic group of the order

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

, consisting of six families (four extinct) of xylophagous

sawflies Sawflies are wasp-like insects that are in the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plant ...

. The group is well represented in early

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

times, but a number of living taxa remain, including the family Anaxyelidae, which has recently been linked to this group (it was previously placed in its own superfamily, Anaxyeloidea).Gao J, Engel MS, Shih C, Ren D, Gao T (2021) A new genus of anaxyelid wood wasps from the mid-Cretaceous and the phylogeny of Anaxyelidae (Hymenoptera). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 86: 151-169. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.86.73161 The female

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

is typically long and projects posteriorly, and is used to drill into wood.

Families

* Anaxyelidae (cedar wood wasps) * Siricidae (horntails) *

Xiphydriidae Xiphydriidae are a family of wood wasps that includes around 150 species. They are located all over the world including North and South America, Australia, Europe, and others. Xiphydriidae larvae are wood borers in dead trees or branches of a ra ...

(wood wasps, sometimes treated as a separate superfamily, Xiphydrioidea) * † Daohugoidae * † Protosiricidae * † Pseudosiricidae * † Sinosiricidae

References

Sawflies Hymenoptera superfamilies {{sawfly-stub