Biotic Surveys & Inventories
Beetles and their yeast endosymbionts from basidiocarp habitats
Insects
Home / Introduction / Participants / Basidiocarps as habitat / Insects / Yeasts / Methods / Publications / Literature cited / Proposal I / Proposal II / Mycology at LSU
EROTYLIDAE OF BARRO COLORADO ISLAND http://www.ent.uga.edu/mchugh/erotylids.html
More photographs from Panama
Many beetle families are expected in basidiocarps at the proposed collecting sites; those discovered to have endosymbionts in the preliminary study are shown in bold type face. (*) indicates other reports of endosymbiosis. Taxonomic list: Superfamily: Family Classification in part, after Lawrence and Britton (1991), Lawrence and Newton (1982) ), and papers in Pakaluk and Slipinski (1995).
 
Staphylinoidea:  Ptiliidae, Leiodidae, Staphylinidae
Eucinetoidea: Eucinetidae, Clambidae
Scarabaeoidea: Geotrupidae
Dryopoidea:  Ptilodactylidae
Dermestoidea: Derodontidae, Dermestidae
Bostrichoidea: Anobiidae
Cleroidea: Trogossitidae
Cucujoidea: Nitidulidae, Cryptophagidae, Erotylidae, Phalacridae, Corylophidae, Endomychidae, Lathridiidae
Tenebrionoidea: Tetratomidae, Ciidae, Melandryidae, Colydiidae, Tenebrionidae
Curculionoidea:  Anthribidae, Scolytidae, Platypodidae
Mycophagous beetles  Lawrence (1989), knowing only about endosymbionts associated with two beetle families, estimated that fully half of all coleopterous families are primarily mycophagous or dependent upon plant material that has been altered by fungal action.  However, more strictly speaking, about twenty five families of beetles (Table) are expected to be associated with basidiocarps at the chosen collecting localities. In the preliminary study, only two beetle species (both Staphylinidae: Bolitocharini) among members of the six families sampled did not yield endosymbiotic yeasts.  Basidiomycetes   Although yeasts and beetles are the primary focus of the study, new species of agarics and Aphyllophorales could be discovered in the proposed collecting localities. The groups we will examine for the presence of beetles are numerous. The literature points out that mycophagous insects encounter a number of problems in their life histories. Many of the agarics are too ephemeral and some of the polypores, too hard and dry.  However, beetles manage to inhabit the basidiocarps of both types, sometimes in very large numbers. In fact over 257 arthropod species were reported from 2660 basidiocarps of one polypore species in an extensive study in eastern Canada (see Gilbertson, 1984, for this and other interesting numbers). It is doubtful that there is much specificity of beetles for the basidiocarps, especially in the case of the more ephemeral agarics, because the predictability of occurrence is so low. However, there are groups of basidiocarps, perhaps sorted by hardness, for which beetles, especially ciids, may show specificity. These groups are not necessarily closely related, but they are composed of tissues of a common hardness such as the grouping of Phellinus, Inonotus, Melanoporia, Cyclomyces, Phaeolus (Lawrence, 1973). It is interesting that ciids and tenebrionids that came from the same polypore in our study harbored yeasts that were very closely related. Basidiomycete host-insect-yeast associations.
Erotylidae
  • Triplax sp.
  • Megalodacne fasciata
  • Gibbifer californicus 
Tenebrionidae
  • Neomida bicornis
  • Platydema sp.
  • Diaperis nigronotata
  • Bolitotherus cornutus
Derodontidae
  • Derodontus esotericus
  • Derodontus maculatus
 Nitidulidae 
  • Colopterus unicolor 
  • Carpophilus sp.
  • Epurea rufa
Ciidae
  • cf. Ceracis curtus
Scarabaeidae
  • Unidentified sp.
 
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.]
Home / Introduction / Participants / Basidiocarps as habitat / Insects / Yeasts / Methods / Publications / Literature cited / Proposal I / Proposal II / Mycology at LSU
Return to Mycology at LSU
Return to Beetlebellyeasts
Last update: 5 May 2001
Questions?