Wood wasp
Photo by Mary Cooper
Sirex noctilio Fabricius
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Siricidae
Size range
- Large insect, up to 35 mm long
Distribution
- Arrived from Europe before 1900, now established throughout New Zealand
Life History
- Eggs are deposited by females in sapwood of pine trees, introducing a fungus at the same time
- Usually less vigorous trees are attacked
- The larvae tunnel through infected wood, feeding on the fungus and pupate in a chamber in the wood
- Adults bore their way to the surface, leaving a sizeable hole, 3–6.6 mm in diameter
- Adults do not feed, they live on fat stored in their bodies