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Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae, which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead or stressed trees in which they cultivate fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, extracts nutrients from it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery. Ambrosia fungi are typically poor wood degraders, and instead utilize less demanding nutrients. Symbiotic fungi produce and detoxify ethanol, which is an attractant for ambrosia beetles and likely prevents growth of antagonistic pathogens and selects for other beneficial symbionts. The majority of ambrosia beetles colonize xylem of recently dead trees, but some attack stressed trees that are still alive, and a few species attack healthy trees. Species differ in their preference for different parts of trees, different stages of deterioration, and in the shape of their tunnels ("galleries"). However, the majority of ambrosia beetles are not specialized to any taxonomic group of hosts, unlike most phytophagous organisms including the closely related bark beetles. One species of ambrosia beetle, Austroplatypus incompertus exhibits eusociality, one of the few organisms outside of Hymenoptera and Isoptera to do so.
The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body. In various members of the family, however, the antennae are quite short and such species can be difficult to distinguish from related beetle families such as the Chrysomelidae. The scientific name of this beetle family goes back to a figure from Greek mythology: after an argument with nymphs, the shepherd Cerambus was transformed into a large beetle with horns.
The emerald ash borer, also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and does not cause significant damage to trees native to the area. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to Europe and North America. Before it was found in North America, very little was known about emerald ash borer in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, and through the use of insecticides and biological control.
A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family (Curculionidae). Although the term "bark beetle" refers to the fact that many species feed in the inner bark (phloem) layer of trees, the subfamily also has many species with other lifestyles, including some that bore into wood, feed in fruit and seeds, or tunnel into herbaceous plants. Well-known species are members of the type genus Scolytus, namely the European elm bark beetle S. multistriatus and the large elm bark beetle S. scolytus, which like the American elm bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes, transmit Dutch elm disease fungi (Ophiostoma). The mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae, southern pine beetle Dendroctonus frontalis, and their near relatives are major pests of conifer forests in North America. A similarly aggressive species in Europe is the spruce ips Ips typographus. A tiny bark beetle, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei is a major pest on coffee plantations around the world.
The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood. In the woodworking industry, larval stages of some are sometimes referred to as woodworms. The three most species-rich families of woodboring beetles are longhorn beetles, bark beetles and weevils, and metallic flat-headed borers. Woodboring is thought to be the ancestral ecology of beetles, and bores made by beetles in fossil wood extend back to the earliest fossil record of beetles in the Early Permian (Asselian), around 295-300 million years ago.
Xylotoles costatus, the Pitt Island longhorn beetle, is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It is endemic to the Chatham Islands. Once thought to be extinct, it is now known to survive on South East Island/Rangatira; being therefore an example of a so-called "Lazarus taxon".
Xanthocryptus novozealandicus, the lemon tree borer parasite, is a wasp in the family Ichneumonidae. It is a native insect of New Zealand. It is also found in Australia and New Guinea. Females hunt for larvae of wood-boring beetles around March, including the lemon tree borer, a native cerambycid that tunnels into citrus trees, grapes and many native species. When a suitable host is found, the female pushes her ovipositor through the wood and injects her eggs into the grub. This has the incidental benefit of helping to control some pests. X. novozealandicus prefers to prey on second year lemon tree borer larvae. This specific parasite prefers to prey on larger second year larvae due to its larger size.
Platypus apicalis, known by its common name the New Zealand pinhole boring beetle, is a wood-boring beetle endemic to New Zealand and found throughout the North and South Island in a range of environments.
Euwallacea fornicatus is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles, known as an invasive species in California, Israel and South Africa. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries. As the rest of the ambrosia beetles, E. fornicatus larvae and adults feed on a symbiotic fungus carried in a specific structure called mycangium. In E. fornicatus, the mycangium is located in the mandible. The combination of massive numbers of beetles with the symbiotic fungus kills trees, even though the fungus alone is a weak pathogen.
Xylosandrus compactus is a species of ambrosia beetle. Common names for this beetle include black twig borer, black coffee borer, black coffee twig borer and tea stem borer. The adult beetle is dark brown or black and inconspicuous; it bores into a twig of a host plant and lays its eggs, and the larvae create further tunnels through the plant tissues. These beetles are agricultural pests that damage the shoots of such crops as coffee, tea, cocoa and avocado.
Xylosandrus germanus, known generally as the alnus ambrosia beetle or black stem borer, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the family Curculionidae. The black stem borer is native to eastern Asia, but is an invasive species in Europe and North America. This species carries and feeds on associated ambrosia fungus, Ambrosiella grosmanniae.
Platypus quercivorus, the oak ambrosia beetle, is a species of weevil and pest of broad-leaved trees. This species is most commonly known for vectoring the fungus responsible for excessive oak dieback in Japan since the 1980s. It is found in Japan, India, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Taiwan.
Cnestus is a genus of ambrosia beetles.
Cnestus mutilatus, commonly known as the camphor shot borer, camphor shoot borer, or sweetgum ambrosia beetle, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the subfamily Scolytinae of the weevil family Curculionidae. It is native to Asia, but has been established as an invasive species in the United States since 1999.
Xyleborus dispar is a species of bark beetle commonly called the Pear blight beetle, or the European shothole borer. It is an invasive species in North America, and can be a pest in orchards and forests throughout its range.
Euwallacea interjectus, is a species of weevil native to Asia but introduced to Westerns parts of the world.
Euwallacea perbrevis, commonly known as tea shot-hole borer, is a species of weevil native to South and South-East Asia through to Australia, but introduced to Western countries.
Xyleborus perforans, commonly known as island pinhole borer, is a species of weevil native in the Oriental region through to Australia but shows a cosmopolitan distribution due to introduction to many parts of the world.
Euwallacea similis, is a species of weevil native in the Oriental region through to Australia but shows a cosmopolitan distribution due to introduction to many parts of the world.
Ambrosiella roeperi is the fungal symbiont of the granulate ambrosia beetle, Xylosandrus crassiusculus, facilitating this insect’s capacity to accumulate on and damage a diverse array of woody plants from around the world. It is one of several important nutritional partners derived from order Microascales that sustain and are transported by xylomycetophagous scolytine beetles.
References
- ↑ "Crossotarsus saundersi Chapius, 1865". Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
- ↑ Schedl, Karl E. (1948-09-01). "XLVI.—Contribution to the Morphology and Taxonomy of the Scolytoidea". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 1 (9): 664–668. doi:10.1080/00222934808653938 . Retrieved 2021-08-21.
- ↑ Brockerhoff, Eckehard G.; Knížek, Miloš; Bain, John (2003-12-01). "Checklist of indigenous and adventive bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae) of New Zealand and interceptions of exotic species (1952-2000)". New Zealand Entomologist. 26 (1): 29–44. Bibcode:2003NZEnt..26...29B. doi:10.1080/00779962.2003.9722106. S2CID 83560459 . Retrieved 2021-08-21.
- ↑ BLETCHLY, J. D. (1961). "A Review of Factors Affecting Ambrosia Beetle Attack in Trees and Felled Logs". Empire Forestry Review. 1 (103): 13–18. JSTOR 42602793 . Retrieved 2021-08-21.
- ↑ F.E.S, W. F. H. Blandford M. A. F. Z. S. (1895-04-01). "XXXVI.—A list of the Scolytidæ collected in Ceylon by Mr. George Lewis, with descriptions of new species". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 15 (88): 315–328. doi:10.1080/00222939508677888 . Retrieved 2021-08-21.
- ↑ "HOST AS AN EN\/IRONMENT IN THE ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF INSECT BORERS IN FRESHLY FELLED TREE TRUNKS" (PDF). Proc. Symp. Host. Environ. zool. Surv. India, : i-vi, 1983. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
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