Cephus

noun

Ce·phus | \ ˈsēfəs \

Definition of Cephus

: a genus (the type of the family Cephidae) of small sawflies having larvae that bore in the stems of plants and including serious pests especially of cereal grasses — see wheat stem sawfly

History and Etymology for Cephus

borrowed from New Latin, perhaps extracted from Greek kēphḗn “drone bee”

Note: Genus name introduced by the French entomologist Pierre André Latreille (1762-1833) in Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des Crustacés et des Insectes (“Sonnini’s Buffon”), vol. 3 (Paris, An X [1802]), p. 303. Latreille gives no clue to the origin of the name, which replaces Sirex pygmaeus of Linnaeus.

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