Rhyssa persuasoria

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Rhyssa persuasoria
Ichneumonidae - Rhyssa persuasoria.JPG
Rhyssa persuasoria – Female
Ichneumonidae - Rhyssa persuasoria (male).JPG
Male
Scientific classification
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R. persuasoria
Binomial name
Rhyssa persuasoria
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms [1]
  • Ichneumon matutinus Christ, 1791
  • Rhyssa gloriosa Rudow, 1889
  • Rhyssa marginalis Brulle, 1846
  • Rhyssa matutina(Christ, 1791)

Rhyssa persuasoria, also known as the sabre wasp, is a species belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Rhyssinae. Members of this subfamily, including those of Rhyssa and the allied Megarhyssa , are also known collectively as giant ichneumonid wasps or giant ichneumons.

Contents

Subspecies

There are four described subspecies of Rhyssa persuasoria: [1] [2] [3]

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in most of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Russia, Czech Republic, European Turkey, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Yugoslavia), in the Australasian realm, in the Near East, in the Nearctic realm, in North Africa, and in the Indomalayan realm. [4] These wasps normally occur in coniferous or mixed woodland. [5]

Description

Rhyssa persuasoria is one of the largest ichneumon wasps in Europe. The length of adults varies from about 10–20 millimetres (0.39–0.79 in) in males up to 20–40 millimetres (0.79–1.57 in) in the females, plus about 20–40 millimetres (0.79–1.57 in) of the ovipositor. These ichneumon wasps have a thin black body, several whitish spots on the head, thorax, and abdomen and reddish legs. The antennae are long and thin. Females have a long ovipositor, which they use when laying eggs. The length of the ovipositor exceeds the body length. [5]

This species is rather similar to Rhyssa amoena Gravenhorst, 1829.[ citation needed ]

Biology

Adults can mainly be encountered from July through August, [5] especially in paths and clearings of coniferous forests. They feed on carbohydrates such as sugar and starch, which are obtained, for example, by feasting on honeydew or pine needles. Flowers are not visited. [6]

Female of this parasitic species drills deep into wood by its hair thin ovipositor (terebra) and lays its eggs on larvae living deep in timber (up to 40 mm), which become a food supply and an incubator for the progeny, until it is fully grown. This species has one generation a year (univoltine). Larvae overwinter in the wood, pupating the next spring and emerging from the wood as adults.

Main hosts of Rhyssa persuasoria are the larvae of horntails or wood wasps ( Urocerus gigas , Siricidae species, a type of xylophagous sawfly), as well as larvae of longhorn beetles (Spondylis buprestoides, Monochamus sutor) and great capricorn beetle (Cerambyx cerdo). [1] In North America, its main hosts are Sirex areolatus and Syntexis libocedrii . [7]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ovipositor</span> Anatomical structure for laying eggs

The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typically its form is adapted to functions such as preparing a place for the egg, transmitting the egg, and then placing it properly. For most insects, the organ is used merely to attach the egg to some surface, but for many parasitic species, it is a piercing organ as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sawfly</span> Suborder of insects

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ichneumonoidea</span> Superfamily of wasps

The superfamily Ichneumonoidea contains one extinct and three extant families, including the two largest families within Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. The group is thought to contain as many as 100,000 species, many of which have not yet been described. Like other parasitoid wasps, they were long placed in the "Parasitica", variously considered as an infraorder or an unranked clade, now known to be paraphyletic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ichneumonidae</span> Family of wasps

The Ichneumonidae, also known as ichneumon wasps, ichneumonid wasps, ichneumonids, or Darwin wasps, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species described as of 2016. However, this likely represents less than a quarter of their true richness as reliable estimates are lacking, along with much of the most basic knowledge about their ecology, distribution, and evolution. It is estimated that there are more species in this family than there are species of birds and mammals combined. Ichneumonid wasps, with very few exceptions, attack the immature stages of holometabolous insects and spiders, eventually killing their hosts. They thus fulfill an important role as regulators of insect populations, both in natural and semi-natural systems, making them promising agents for biological control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horntail</span> Family of sawflies

Horntail or wood wasp are any of the 150 non-social species of the hymenopteran family Siricidae, a type of wood-eating sawfly. The common name "horntail" derives from the stout, spine-like structure at the end of the adult's abdomen, which is used to pierce the host's bark to allow the eggs to be inserted into the wood. A typical adult horntail is brown, blue, or black with yellow or red parts, and may often reach up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long. The pigeon horntail can grow up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long, among the longest of all Hymenoptera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasp</span> Group of insects

A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.

<i>Xanthocryptus novozealandicus</i> Species of wasp

Xanthocryptus novozealandicus, the lemon tree borer parasite, is a wasp in the family Ichneumonidae. It is a native insect of New Zealand. It is also found in Australia and New Guinea. Females hunt for larvae of wood-boring beetles around March, including the lemon tree borer, a native cerambycid that tunnels into citrus trees, grapes and many native species. When a suitable host is found, the female pushes her ovipositor through the wood and injects her eggs into the grub. This has the incidental benefit of helping to control some pests. X. novozealandicus prefers to prey on second year lemon tree borer larvae. This specific parasite prefers to prey on larger second year larvae due to its larger size.

<i>Xeris spectrum</i> Species of sawfly

Xeris spectrum is a kind of horntail or wood wasp, that lives in coniferous forests. It is large wasp with a powerful ovipositor in females. Unlike other Siricid Wood wasps, Xeris spectrum does not have symbiotic fungi to aid its larvae as they burrow in the wood of fir and other conifer trees making it unique in the Siricidae. It is widespread and is found in large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

<i>Tremex columba</i> Species of sawfly

Tremex columba, also known as the pigeon tremex or pigeon horntail, is a species of horntail that is native to eastern and western North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sirex woodwasp</span> Species of sawfly

The sirex woodwasp is a species of horntail, native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. Adults vary in length from 9 to 36 mm.

<i>Megarhyssa nortoni</i> Species of wasp

Megarhyssa nortoni, also known as Norton's giant ichneumonid wasp or the western giant ichneumonid wasp, is a species of large ichneumon wasp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibaliidae</span> Family of wasps

The Ibaliidae are a small family of the hymenopteran superfamily Cynipoidea. Ibaliidae differ from most of the cynipoids by the larvae being parasitoids on other wasp larvae in the group Siricidae. The Ibaliidae comprise three extant genera of fairly large wasps, with a total of 20 species, and is a sister group to the rest of the cynipoids except the small subfamily Austrocynipidae.

<i>Cotesia glomerata</i> Species of wasp

Cotesia glomerata, the white butterfly parasite, is a small parasitoid wasp belonging to family Braconidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 publication 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

<i>Amylostereum</i> Genus of fungi

Amylostereum is the single genus in the fungal family Amylostereaceae. The genus currently comprises four saprotrophic and parasitic species, which live off living or dead wood. The Amylostereaceae cause white rot in the wood by disintegrating the tissue component lignin. They produce crust-like, partially wavy fruit bodies on the surface of infested trees, which are similar to those produced by Stereum species.

<i>Rhyssa</i> Genus of insects

Rhyssa is a genus of ichneumon wasps belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Rhyssinae.

<i>Amblyteles armatorius</i> Species of wasp

Amblyteles armatorius is a species of parasitic wasp in the family Ichneumonidae first described by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1771.

<i>Megarhyssa macrurus</i> Species of wasp

Megarhyssa macrurus, also known as the long-tailed giant ichneumonid wasp or long-tailed giant ichneumon wasp, is a species of large ichneumon wasp. It is a parasitoid, notable for its extremely long ovipositor which it uses to deposit an egg into a tunnel in dead wood bored by its host, the larva of a similarly large species of horntail.

<i>Leucospis dorsigera</i> Species of wasp

Leucospis dorsigera is a species of wasp belonging to the family Leucospidae.

<i>Ibalia leucospoides</i> Species of wasp

Ibalia leucospoides, the knife-shaped ibalia, is a species of ibaliid wasp in the family Ibaliidae.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Biolib
  2. Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D. Catalogue of Life
  3. Hurley, B.P., B. Slippers, and M. J. Wingfield (2007). "A comparison of control results for the alien invasive woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, in the southern hemisphere". Agricultural and Forest Entomology. 9 (3): 159–17. doi:10.1111/j.1461-9563.2007.00340.x. hdl: 2263/3444 . S2CID   54217378.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Fauna Europaea
  5. 1 2 3 Nature Spot
  6. Helen Hocking (1967): The influence of food on longevity and oviposition in Rhyssa persuasoria (L.) (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 6: 83-88.
  7. Bug Guide