| Megalodontes cephalotes | |
|---|---|
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| Megalodontes cephalotes | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Suborder: | Symphyta |
| Family: | Megalodontesidae |
| Genus: | Megalodontes |
| Species: | M. cephalotes |
| Binomial name | |
| Megalodontes cephalotes (Fabricius, 1781) | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
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Megalodontes cephalotes is a species of sawflies within the Symphyta belonging to the family Megalodontesidae. [2]
This species is restricted to the regions of Europe (Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia). [3] It is a typically mountainous and alpine species, but it is also present in the lowlands. It inhabits south-facing warm slopes and dry grasslands, at an elevation up to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) above sea level. [3] [4]
Megalodontes cephalotes can reach a length of 8–12 millimetres (0.31–0.47 in). [4] These rather rare sawflies have a black glossy body with narrow light yellow bands on the abdomen. Pronotum shows a yellow upper margin. The head is large, the antennae are pectinate, with darkened flabelli towards the apex. The wings are reddish. [3]
Adults can be found from May to July, mainly on white and yellow inflorescences. [4] They feed on pollen, nectar and honeydew, while young larvae feed gregariously on a few flowering plants ( Laserpitium , Seseli and Peucedanum species). [3] [4] [5]
Sawflies are the insects of 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 plants where they lay their eggs. The name is associated especially with the Tenthredinoidea, by far the largest superfamily in the suborder, with about 7,000 known species; in the entire suborder, there are 8,000 described species in more than 800 genera. Symphyta is paraphyletic, consisting of several basal groups within the order Hymenoptera, each one rooted inside the previous group, ending with the Apocrita which are not sawflies.
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 range of trees. They are characterized as having long and skinny necks with dome-shaped heads. The oldest fossils of the group are from the mid Cretaceous.
The Orussidae or the parasitic wood wasps represent a small family of sawflies ("Symphyta"). Currently, about 93 extant and four fossil species are known. They take a key position in phylogenetic analyses of Hymenoptera, because they form the sister taxon of the megadiverse apocritan wasps, and the common ancestor of Orussidae + Apocrita evolved parasitism for the first time in course of the evolution of the Hymenoptera. They are also the only sawflies with carnivorous larvae.
The Xyelidae are a comparatively species-poor family of sawflies comprising about 80 extant species in five genera worldwide and is the only family in the superfamily Xyeloidea. The fossil record of the family is extensive, comprising more than 120 species and including the oldest fossil Hymenoptera species dating back to the Triassic, between 245 and 208 million years ago. Xyelidae are to be regarded as living fossils since they represent one of the oldest lineages of insects and include still extant forms.
The Pamphilioidea are a small superfamily within the Symphyta, containing some 250 living species restricted to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. These hymenopterans share the distinctive feature of a very large, almost prognathous head, which is widest ventrally.
The Megalodontesidae are a small family of sawflies, containing a single living genus, Megalodontes, with some 40 species restricted to the temperate regions of Eurasia. Larvae of Megalodontesidae feed on herbaceous plants. They are distinguished from the closely related Pamphiliidae by their serrate or pectinate antennae.
Pamphiliidae is a small wasp family within Symphyta, containing some 200 species from the temperate regions of North America and Eurasia. The larvae feed on plants, using silk to build webs or tents, or to roll leaves into tubes in which they feed, thus earning them the common names leaf-rolling sawflies or web-spinning sawflies. Some species are gregarious and the larvae live in large groups. Fossils of Pamphiliidae have been dated to the Jurassic period.
The Diprionidae are a small family of conifer-feeding sawflies restricted to the Northern Hemisphere, with some 140 species in 13 genera. Larvae are often gregarious, and sometimes there can be major outbreaks, thus these sawflies can be major forest pests at times. These sawflies have the ability to compromise the health and ecological balance of forests. When the temperatures begin to rise, the sawflies become strengthened pests to these conifers. In doing so, they cause damage to a certain extent.
The Pergidae are a moderate-sized family of sawflies occurring in the Western Hemisphere and the Australasian Region. The Pergidae are, with almost 450 described species, the third-largest family of Symphyta after the Tenthredinidae and the Argidae. Morphologically, most pergids are typically sawfly-like, but the form of the antennae varies considerably in number of segments and from simple to serrate and pectinate or even bipectinate. Sexual dimorphism is common and reflected in differences in type of antennae, colour, and size. Included are some of the few known apterous sawflies, those of the genus Cladomacra occurring in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and a species with brachypterous females, Clarissa tasbates, in Tasmania.
Tenthredinidae is the largest family of sawflies, with well over 7,500 species worldwide, divided into 430 genera. Larvae are herbivores and typically feed on the foliage of trees and shrubs, with occasional exceptions that are leaf miners, stem borers, or gall makers. The larvae of externally feeding species resemble small caterpillars. As with all hymenopterans, common sawflies undergo complete metamorphosis.
Acantholyda is a genus of sawflies.
Nematinae is a subfamily of sawflies belonging to the family Tenthredinidae. It contains over 1250 described species in ~40 genera. Members of this subfamily feed on a wide range of plants and employ a wide range of feeding habits, both internally and externally, on their host plants.
Allantinae is a subfamily of sawflies in the family Tenthredinidae, and the largest subfamily of that family, with about 110 genera. The subfamily is considered to consist of five to six tribes, and are medium to large sawflies.
Tenthredo scrophulariae, the figwort sawfly is a species of the family Tenthredinidae, subfamily Tenthredininae.
Megalodontes is a genus of sawflies within the Symphyta belonging to the family Megalodontesidae subfamily Megalodontesinae.
Tenthredo temula is a sawfly species of the family Tenthredinidae, subfamily Tenthredininae.
Cimbex quadrimaculatus is a species of sawflies in the family Cimbicidae.
Arge berberidis, common name berberis sawfly, is a species of sawflies belonging to the family Argidae subfamily Arginae.
Monostegia is a genus of sawfly. The authority is based on the description by Achille Costa and Oronzio Costa, although earlier work grants this to Fabricius 1798., though the commonest species, M. abdominalis, bears the authority of Fabricius.
Tenthredo amoena is a sawfly species belonging to the family Tenthredinidae.
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