Overview
Larvae are wood-borers and have only vestigial legs. They pupate after about one year, but otherwise little information is available on the biology of the Australian species. In New Zealand, the larvae of
Moaxiphia
bore into twigs of the evergreen shrub
Coprosma robusta
(Rubiaceae) and the evergreen southern beeches
Nothofagus fusca
and
N. menziesii
(Fagacae). In the northern hemisphere xiphydriids develop in the wood of deciduous trees, usually in dead or dying branches, where the larvae feed using symbiotic fungi in their tunnels to soften the wood (also see Siricidae).
Description
Xiphydriids (wood wasps) are small to moderately large wasps (5 14 mm) that are characterised by having an elongate neck formed from the propleura.
Distribution
The family is found worldwide, except Africa, and includes some 95 species. In Australasia, where they are rarely collected, the family contains just nine described species: six species of
Rhysacephala
from Australia (3 spp.), Papua New Guinea (1 sp.), New Caledonia (1 sp.) and the Aru Islands of Indonesia (1 sp.); two species of
Moaxiphia
from New Zealand; and a single species in the monotypic Australian genus
Austrocyrta.
In addition, several undescribed species are known from eastern and northern Australia and New Guinea.
Further information about the Xiphydriidae can be found in Goulet 1993, Naumann 1991, Riek 1955, Smith 1978 and Valentine & Walker 1991.