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Argidae

Argid wasps of Africa and Madagascar 

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Tenthredinoidea)

Classification

Arginae
  Athermantinae
  Sterictophorinae

Distribution

Worldwide, but most diverse in the tropics.

Biology

Phytophagous. Larvae feed on leaves of ferns, horsetails, gymnosperms and angiosperms, occasionally they feed on the pith of twigs or on catkins.

References

Goulet, H. 1993. Superfamilies Cephoidea, Megalodontoidea, Orussoidea, Siricoidea, Tenthredinoidea and Xyeloidea (pp. 101-129). In GOULET, H. & HUBER, J. (eds). Hymenoptera of the World: an identification guide to families. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 668 pp.

Koch, F. 2005. The sawflies of the BIOTA-Southern Africa Project with description of a new species of Arge (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Symphyta). Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin - Zoologische Reihe 81: 193-199.

Koch, F. 2006. A contribution to the sawfly fauna of the winter rainfall area of southern Africa: revision of the genus Triarge Forsius, 1931 with description of a new species of Pampsilota Konow, 1899 (Hymenoptera: Symphyta: Argidae: Arginae, Athermantinae). Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin - Zoologische Reihe 82: 223-238.

Credits

Photographs © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of Cape Town)


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