Biotic Surveys & Inventories:
Beetles and their yeast endosymbionts from basidiocarp habitats
Basidiocarps as habitat
Home / Introduction / Participants / Basidiocarps as habitat / Insects / Yeasts / Methods / Publications / Literature cited / Proposal I / Proposal II / Mycology at LSU

The study seeks to discover new yeasts, especially endosymbiotic yeasts, that live with insects in basidiocarps.  The study is taxonomically broad, becuase in addition to the "true" saccharomycetalean yeasts [Saccharomycetales (4-5 families)] and basidiomycetous yeasts [Tremellales (one family)], the beetles with which they are associated [as many as 20-25 families], and to some extent, the basidiocarps in which the beetles feed [Agaricaceae, Bolitaceae, “gasteromycetes,” Aphyllophorales], also receive our attention. The study is limited primarily to the basidiocarp habitat with the exception of determining if nonmycophagous sister taxa of mycophagous beetles also harbor endosymbiotic yeasts.  A brief taxonomic overview of basidiomycetes is found in the table below; this group is one of the three components of our biodiversity study (also see insects, yeasts).  Often there is a fourth component in the associations, the plants with which the basidiomycetes are associated.
Families of basidiomycetes* to be targeted for beetle collection.  Habitats sampled in the preliminary study are indicated by bold type face.
Agarics: Agaricaceae, Amanitaceae, Bolbitiaceae, Coprinaceae, Cortinariaceae, Fistulinaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Paxillaceae, Pluteaceae, Russulaceae, Schizophyllaceae, Strophariaceae, Tricholomataceae, etc.
Gasteromycetes: Lycoperdales, Nidulariales, Sclerodermatales, Tulostomatales, etc.
Boletes: Boletaceae, Aphyllophorales (mostly “polypores”): Bondarzewiaceae, Cantharellaceae,Coniophoraceae, Ganodermataceae, Gomphiaceae, Hericiaceae, Hymenochaetaceae, Polyporaceae, Sparrasidaceae, Steriaceae, etc.
*Classification after Donk (1964), Gilbertson and Ryvarden (1986), and Singer (1986), but see Hibbett et al. (1997) for a developing phylogenetic approach.

Laetiporus sulfureus		 Basidiocarps are habitat for a variety of beetles.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Inonotus dryadeus
Habitats
Amanita sp.
Boletus sp.
Fomitella supina
Ganoderma applanatum
Ganoderma sp.
Hericiumsp. 
Inonotus ludovicianus
Pisolithus tinctorius
Panama collections (temporary files)
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0072741. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Last update: 5 May 2001
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