Sirex carinthiacus

Taxonomy

Family: Siricidae
Subfamily: Siricinae
Genus: Sirex Linnaeus, 1760
Species: Sirex carinthiacus Konow, 1892
Common names: none

Background

Sirex carinthiacus is a rare, completely dark species that is known only from central Europe (Smith 1978Smith 1978:
Smith DR. 1978. Suborder Symphyta (Xyelidae, Parachexyelidae, Parapamphiliidae, Xyelydidae, Karatavitidae, Gigasiricidae, Sepulcidae, Pseudosiricidae, Anaxyelidae, Siricidae, Xiphydriidae, Paroryssidae, Xyelotomidae, Blasticotomidae, Pergidae). Hymenopterorum Catalogus 14: 1-193.).

Diagnostic characteristics

See Sirex for genus-level diagnostic characteristics.

The existing description of Sirex carinthiacus is somewhat incomplete; a very small number of specimens have been collected, and all are females (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.).

Females:

• small in size (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
  Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.)
• body and legs completely dark with greenish metallic reflections (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
  Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.)
• fore wings are slightly brown-tinted on the apicalapical:
  towards the apex; farthest away from the body
  half (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
  Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.)
• abdomen abdomen:
  the third and last segment of an insect's body; in sawflies this is usually made up of 11 segments (segments 9 and 10 often fused)
  long and slender (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
  Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.)

May be confused with

Sirex carinthiacus can be distinguished from all other Sirex in its known range (S. juvencus, S. torvus, S. noctilio) by the completely black legs. Specimens occuring outside of the known range may be difficult to separate from other dark forms of Sirex (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.).

Morphological and geographical variation

none recorded

Host associations

Sirex species feed on trees of Pinaceae and Cupressaceae. Sirex carinthiacus is known only from Picea spp. (spruce) (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.).

Life history

Female Sirex harbor symbiotic basidiomycete fungus in abdominal glands called mycangia. During oviposition, the site is inoculated with the fungus (Amylostereum spp.), which begins to decompose the surrounding wood. LarvaeLarva:
the immature stage of holometabolous insects
feed on the fungus, and in the process bore galleries through the wood (Schiff et al. 2012Schiff et al. 2012:
Schiff NM, Goulet H, Smith DR, Boudreault C, Wilson AD, and Scheffler BE. 2012. Siricidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta: Siricoidea) of the Western Hemisphere. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 21: 1-305.).

Larvae are creamy white and grub-like in appearance with a dark head capsule. As with adults, larvaelarva:
the immature stage of holometabolous insects
possess a short dorsaldorsal:
of or on the top surface of the body or structure
horn on the posterior end of the body. The larvaelarva:
the immature stage of holometabolous insects
bore galleries into wood, feeding until pupation and subsequent emergence. Throughout this process, the larvaelarva:
the immature stage of holometabolous insects
use their horn to pack the tunnel behind them with sawdust. Emergence holes are perfectly circular. The fungal symbiont is carried in specialized organs in female larvaelarva:
the immature stage of holometabolous insects
that develop into the mycangia after metamorphosis (Schiff et al. 2012Schiff et al. 2012:
Schiff NM, Goulet H, Smith DR, Boudreault C, Wilson AD, and Scheffler BE. 2012. Siricidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta: Siricoidea) of the Western Hemisphere. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 21: 1-305.).

The documented flight period of S. carinthiacus is July to September (Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.).

Distribution

World: Sirex carinthiacus is found in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (Smith 1978Smith 1978:
Smith DR. 1978. Suborder Symphyta (Xyelidae, Parachexyelidae, Parapamphiliidae, Xyelydidae, Karatavitidae, Gigasiricidae, Sepulcidae, Pseudosiricidae, Anaxyelidae, Siricidae, Xiphydriidae, Paroryssidae, Xyelotomidae, Blasticotomidae, Pergidae). Hymenopterorum Catalogus 14: 1-193., Borowski et al. 2019Borowski et al. 2019:
Borowski J, Radosław P, Tomasz J, and Jacek H, Marek S. 2019. New data on the occurrence of Sirex carinthiacus Konow, (Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Siricidae) in Poland. World Scientific News 119: 238-242.).

North America: not recorded

Map data from: GBIF.org (26 June 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download Sirex carinthiacus

Details about data used for maps can be found here.