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Species Tremex columba - Pigeon Horntail Wasp

Bitternut Hickory tree insect in NE Wisconsin-  resembles a wasp - Tremex columba Pigeon Tremex - Tremex columba - female Tremex columba - Pigeon Tremex - Tremex columba Mydas fly? - Tremex columba sawfly? - Tremex columba - female Siricidae, Pigeon Tremex - Tremex columba - male Large Wasp_ by Jack  - Tremex columba is this a Pigeon Horntail? - Tremex columba
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon ("Symphyta" - Sawflies, Horntails, and Wood Wasps)
Family Siricidae (Horntail Wasps)
Subfamily Tremecinae
Genus Tremex
Species columba (Pigeon Horntail Wasp)
Other Common Names
Pigeon Tremex
Pigeon Tremex Sawfly
Pigeon Horntail
Pigeon Horntail Sawfly
Explanation of Names
Tremex columba (Linnaeus 1763)
from the Latin columba ('pigeon/dove'), by extension a term of endearment; from the Ancient Greek κόλυμβος‎ kolumbos ('diver')
Size
Adults usually >25 mm, larvae up to ~40 mm
Female is 37-55mm long(1)
Males are 18-37mm long(1)
Identification

Det. Bill Keim, 2016
Range
widely distributed across US & so. Can. though less common in the west and se. (NS-FL to AB-CA) / n. Mex. - Map (2)(GBIF); very common
Habitat
diseased, decaying or cut wood
Season
mostly Jun-Oct (BG data)
Food
hosts: beech, elm, hickory, maple, oak, poplar, apple, pear, sycamore, hackberry(3)
Life Cycle
The female bores through the bark to a depth of about 12mm in the wood and deposits her eggs. Laid singly some are near each other. The larvae feed by excavating tunnels entirely in the wood. Pupation occurs at the end of the larval tunnel and the adults emerge through circular holes about 8mm in diameter.(1)
One generation per year.(1)

Larva; pupa
Remarks
parasitized by Megarhyssa spp. (Ichneumonidae)

This horntail relies on basidiomycete white rot fungi as its enzyme-producing partner. The wasp, in turn, carries the fungus to the wood source and gets it past the first line of the tree's defense, the bark.(4)
Works Cited
1.Eastern Forest Insects
Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.
2.Siricidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta: Siricoidea) of the Western Hemisphere
Schiff, N.M., Goulet, H., Smith, D.R., Boudreault, C., Wilson, A.D., and Scheffler, B.E. 2012. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification No. 21: 305 pp.
3.Guide to the siricid woodwasps of North America
Schiff N.M., Valley S.A., LaBonte J.R., Smith D.R. 2006. USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team, Morgantown, WV. 101 pp.
4.The Lives of Fungi
Britt A. Bunyard. 2022. UniPress Books Limited.