Abstract
THE presence of a symbiotic basidiomycete fungus in the adult females of the woodwasp Sirex gigas L. was first described by Buchner1. Subsequent work by Cartwright2,3 and Francke-Grossmann4 has shown that the fungi in this and other species can exist independently and are, in fact, common wood-destroyers. Each egg as it passes into the ovipositor is coated with oidia of the fungus, which grows into the wood in advance of the tunnelling larva and may be the insect's source of food. Francke-Grossmann4 could find no fungus in the larva, except in the alimentary canal, and decided that the immature female wasp becomes infested by hyphæ growing from the wall of the tunnel into the special inter-segmental pouches very soon after the pupal skin is shed.
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References
Buchner, P., "Holznahrung und Symbiose" (Berlin, 1928).
Cartwright, K. St. G., Ann. Appl. Biol, 26, 184–87(1929).
Cartwright, K. St. G., Ann. Appl. Biol., 25, 430–32.(1938).
Grossmann, H. F., Z. angew. Ent., 25, 647–80(1939).
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PARKIN, E. Symbiosis in Larval Siricidæ (Hymenoptera). Nature 147, 329 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147329a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147329a0
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