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