Sirex melanopoda

Taxonomy

Family: Siricidae
Subfamily: Siricinae
Genus: Sirex Linnaeus, 1760
Species: Sirex melanopoda Benson, 1965
Common names: none

Background

Sirex melanopoda is a rare species known from India (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.

Females:

• head, body, antennaeantenna:
  the sensory organ emerging from the front of the head, usually between the compound eyes and above the clypeus; includes the flagellum, scape and pedicel
  , and legs completely metallic blue-black (Benson 1965)
• fore wing fore wing:
  the anterior wing of each pair of wings; usually the largest wing of the pair
  hyaline (Benson 1965)
• ovipositor ovipositor:
  the female organ that deposits eggs and is used to drill into plant tissue, located at the apex of the abdomen, made up of the lance and lancet
  length about twice length of fore wingfore wing:
  the anterior wing of each pair of wings; usually the largest wing of the pair
  (Benson 1965)

Males:

• Head, body, and legs completely metallic blue-black (Benson 1965)
• 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)
  tergites 3 to apexapex:
  the end or most distal area of any structure
  slightly purple-tinted (Benson 1965)
• fore wing fore wing:
  the anterior wing of each pair of wings; usually the largest wing of the pair
  slightly yellowish hyalinehyaline:
  transparent; glassy
  (Benson 1965)

May be confused with

Both sexes of S. melanopoda can be distinguished from S. torvus by the entirely black legs. The male is distinguished by the entirely dark abdomenabdomen:
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)
(Benson 1965).

Morphological and geographical variation

none recorded

Host associations

Sirex species feed on trees of Pinaceae and Cupressaceae. Sirex melanopoda is known from Abies pindrow (west Himalayan fir) (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.).

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.).

Distribution

World: Sirex melanopoda is recorded in the Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Punjab states of India (Benson 1965, 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., Saini et al. 2006Saini et al. 2006:
Saini MS, Blank SM, and Smith DR. 2006. Checklist of the sawflies (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) of India. Pp. 575-612. In: Blank SM, Schmidt S, and Taeger A. eds. Recent sawfly research: synthesis and prospects. Goecke amp; Evers, Keltern.).

North America: Not recorded.

No specific locality data was available for mapping the range of this species at the time of publication.