Cephidae
Taxonomic placing: Insecta, Holometabola, Hymenoptera, Symphyta.
Common name: Stem sawflies.
Morphology: Slender insects with a laterally compressed body, mostly black but with some yellow segments, a large prothorax and long antennae. Larvae apodous, but with reduced, leg-like thoractic tubercles.
Life history: A family of about 100 species of which most are stem borers in various plants, especially grasses. The adults are slow fliers that visit flowers.
Economic importance: Middle Eastern pests include Cephus pygmaeus L. and Trachelus tabidus (Fabricius).
References
Çalmasur, Ö. and Özbek, H. 2010. Distribution data on the Cephidae (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) fauna of Turkey. Zoology in the Middle East 50: 144-146.
Gol’berg, A.M. 1986. Biology of the stem sawflies Trachelus tabidus and Cephus pygmaeus in the Negev of southern Israel. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 40: 117–121.
Liston, A.D. and Jacobs, H.-J. 2012. Review of the sawfly fauna of Cyprus, with descriptions of two new species (Hymenoptera: Symphyta). Zoology in the Middle East 56: 67–84.