#anaxyelidae

[addicted2wasps]

I was today years old when I heard about the incredible Incense-Cedar Wood Wasp. Syntexis libocedrii is the only living species of Symphytan in the Anaxyelidae. It is considered a living fossil since the family has an extensive Mesozoic fossil record. It has the unique ability to oviposit in burnt incense-cedar. The wood is often still smoldering when the sawfly is laying its eggs. Nature is fascinating.

[wasppilled]

Go on then, what’s your most favouritest favourite bug out there? Give us some fun facts about it! =)

I'm really bad at picking favorites tbh!! but i can share some favorite bug facts that stand out to me :-)

sawflies are a polyphyletic group but the one group least related to the rest and more related to the rest of hymenoptera is a cool group called orussidae, which are the only parasitoid sawflies! they're parasitoids of wood boring insects.

there's also like one extant member of some other group of sawflies (Anaxyelidae i think?), at least one extant member in north america, which lays its eggs exclusively in recently burned wood following forest fires in certain habitats. bugguide mentions it's usually only seen by firefighters for this reason

sawflies aren't even my favorites i just thought of them right now so you get sawfly facts