''Syntexis libocedrii'', (also called the cedar wood wasp or incense-cedar wood wasp) is the only living species in the

wood wasp Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay ...

family

Anaxyelidae Anaxyelidae is a family of incense cedar wood wasps in the order Hymenoptera. It contains only one living genus, '' Syntexis'', which has only a single species, native to Western North America. Fossils of the family extend back to the Middle Jura ...

, within the

Symphyta Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay ...

, though the family has an extensive

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

fossil record. This species is thus a "

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossi ...

". It has the remarkable behavior of ovipositing only in recently burnt incense-cedar (''

Calocedrus ''Calocedrus'', the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. It is native to eastern Asia and western North America. The generic n ...

''), red cedar (''

Thuja ''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. M ...

'') or juniper (''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

''). The wood is often still smoldering while the wasp is laying its eggs, and the larvae develop in the wood. ''S. libocedrii'' occurs from the mountains of central

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to southern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, but is very rarely seen, except by firefighters.

References

Bibliography

* Sawflies Insects described in 1915 Taxa named by Sievert Allen Rohwer {{Sawfly-stub