''Xiphydria'' is a genus of wood wasps belonging to the family

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 ...

. This genus is

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

, being found in Europe, Asia and North America.

Description

In ''Xiphydria'', the head has

mandibles In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

each with four teeth, 5-segmented maxillary palps, a Clypeus (arthropod anatomy), clypeus with a medial tooth-like projection and Antenna (biology), antennae with about 20 segments. The pronotum is strongly constricted in dorsal view and the propleuron is long in lateral view (this means the head is positioned on a relatively long "neck"). The hind wing has only two closed cells. Larvae are white and grub-like. They resemble larvae of Siricidae, another wood-boring group of sawflies.

Biology

Female ''Xiphydria'' oviposit into diseased or dead wood, often branches that have fallen or are about to fall (Widowmaker (forestry), widowmakers). During oviposition, they also infect the wood with a Symbiosis, symbiotic fungus that starts decomposing the wood. Eggs hatch into larvae that bore galleries into wood parallel to the grain. As larvae feed, they pack frass (waste) behind their bodies. At maturity, larvae become prepupae which switch direction so the gallery runs towards the outside of the branch (this is to reduce the amount of wood that needs to be chewed through later). The next step is pupation. Once that is complete, adult wasps emerge, leaving behind emergence holes ~3 mm wide in the wood. This genus is univoltine, meaning there is one generation per year. They attack a range of different broadleaf trees: ''Acer'' (maple), ''Betula'' (birch), ''Ulmus'' (elm), ''Carya'' (hickory), ''Populus'' (cottonwood), ''Salix'' (willow), ''Alnus'' (alder), ''Platanus'' (sycamore, plane), ''Rhus'' (sumac), ''Fagus'' (beech), ''Fraxinus'' (ash), ''Tilia'' (basswood), ''Ostrya'' (hophornbeam), ''Crataegus'' (hawthorn), ''Carpinus'' (hornbeam), ''Prunus'' (cherry, plum), and ''Quercus'' (oak).

Importance to humans

Xiphydriidae may occur in firewood or raw woodworking materials. While usually of little economic importance, ''X. longicallis'' can cause economic damage to oak wood.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus ''Xiphydria'': * ''Xiphydria albopicta'' Shinohara & Kameda, 2019 * ''Xiphydria annulitibia'' Takeuchi, 1936 * ''Xiphydria betulae'' (Enslin, 1911) * ''Xiphydria camelus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) * ''Xiphydria canadensis'' (Provancher, 1875) * ''Xiphydria duniana'' Gourlay, 1927 * ''Xiphydria irrorata'' F.Pesarini, 1995 * ''Xiphydria kanba'' Shinohara, Hara & Smith, 2020 * ''Xiphydria kastsheevi'' Ermolenko, 1979 * ''Xiphydria konishii'' Shinohara, Hara & Smith, 2020 * ''Xiphydria laeviceps'' Smith, 1860 * ''Xiphydria longicollis'' (Geoffroy, 1785) * ''Xiphydria megapolitana'' (Brauns, 1884) * ''Xiphydria melanoptera'' Shinohara, Hara & Smith, 2020 * ''Xiphydria mellipes'' Harris 1841 * ''Xiphydria nagasei'' Shinohara, 2019 * ''Xiphydria ogasawarai'' Matsumura, 1927 * ''Xiphydria palaeanarctica'' Shinohara, 2019 * ''Xiphydria picta'' Konow, 1897 * ''Xiphydria prolongata'' (Geoffroy, 1785) * ''Xiphydria scutellata'' Konow, 1897 * BOLD:AAG7648 (''Xiphydria'' sp.) * BOLD:ACW8274 (''Xiphydria'' sp.) * BOLD:ADX5042 (''Xiphydria'' sp.) * BOLD:AED1517 (''Xiphydria'' sp.)

Gallery

File:Xiphydria mellipes 2.jpg, ''Xiphydria mellipes'' File:2021 07 11 Xiphydria prolongata.jpg, ''Xiphydria prolongata''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15715354 Xiphydriidae Hymenoptera genera