Family ORUSSIDAE

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Introduction

This small family of sawflies has about 75 species worldwide and 12 described species from Australia (Riek 1955; Schmidt & Vilhelmsen 2002; Vilhelmsen & Smith 2002).

Orussids are unique among the sawflies in that they are parasitic rather than phytophagous, and are considered to be an evolutionary link (i.e. sister group) to the apocritan wasps (Vilhelmsen 2001). They are characterised by having rasp-like tubercules on the vertex of the head, eyes with minute hairs, antennae inserted low on the face close to the mouth, and the ovipositor of females long and internally looped in the abdomen.

Adult orussids are uncommon and rarely collected, but can sometimes be seen on sunlit tree trunks and logs. Females use their highly modified antennae and fore legs to echo-locate in wood to locate suitable sites for oviposition. They are mostly ectoparasitoids of wood-boring beetles, especially Buprestidae (Coleoptera), although larvae later enter the host’s remains to pupate.

General References

Riek, E.F. 1955. The Australian sawflies of the family Orussidae (Hymenoptera, Symphyta). Australian Journal of Zoology 3: 99-105

Schmidt, S. & Vilhelmsen, L. 2002. Revision of the Australasian genus Orussobaius Benson (Hymenoptera: Symphyta: Orussidae). Australian Journal of Entomology 41: 226-235

Vilhelmsen, L. 2001. Phylogeny and classification of the extant basal lineages of the Hymenoptera (Insecta). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 131: 393-442

Vilhelmsen, L. & Smith, D.R. 2002. Revision of the 'ophrynopine' genera Argentophrynopus gen. n., Guiglia Benson, Kulcania Benson, Ophrella Middlekauff, Ophrynon Middlekauff, Ophrynopus Konow, and Stirocorsia Konow (Hymenoptera: Orussidae). Insect Systematics and Evolution 33(4): 387-420

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