Lymexylidae
Ship-timber beetles | |
---|---|
Lymexylon navale | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Suborder: | Polyphaga |
Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
Superfamily: | Lymexyloidea |
Family: | Lymexylidae Fleming, 1821 |
Wikispecies has information related to: Ship-timber beetle |
The Lymexylidae, or ship-timber beetles (historically often spelled Lymexylonidae), are a family of wood-boring beetles, comprising the sole family within the superfamily Lymexyloidea.
Their larvae bore into living and decaying wood (chestnut, poplar, and oaks), where they eat the fungus (Ascoidea hylecoeti) which grows in their tunnels. The beetles grow up to about 5 to 40 mm long. These beetles are believed to be the first beetles to evolve an agricultural behavior.
Habitat and Behavior
Lymexylon, Elateroides, and Melittomma are pests to forest trees such as Chestnut, Poplar, and Oak, and are distributed worldwide. Some species are parasitic, causing decay in living trees and damaging timber structures such as houses and ships. Wood boring activities occur primarily in the larva stage, with the larvae damaging both sapwood and heartwood.
Lymexylidae larvae have a symbiotic association with certain types of fungi. The fungi grow in sheltered environments where they are tended by the larvae, such as in the holes burrowed into the wood - and in return, the larvae feed on the fungal farms.
Reproduction in Elateroides Dermestoides
Specifically, this species has evolved a very interesting relationship with the yeast-like fungus, Endomyces hylecoeti. Every egg the female lays is coated with fungal spores from a pouch near her ovipositor. The larvae hatch and subsequently collect some of the spores by remaining close to the egg shells for a period of time, before tunneling further into the wood. The fungi grow on the tunnel walls, which are created by the larvae. The larvae then consume the fungus, rather than the wood itself. The fungi require a good flow of air, so the larvae ensure the tunnels are free of any debris.[1]
Species and Genera
There are nearly 50 species in 8 genera, including:
- The ship timber beetle, Lymexylon navale
- Two species are located in Eastern US and Canada: the sapwood timberworm Elateroides lugubris (Say) and the chestnut timberworm, Melittomma sericeum
Lymexylidae contain the following genera:[2]
- Atractocerus Palisot de Beauvois, 1801
- Australymexylon Wheeler, 1986
- Elateroides Schaeffer, 1766
- Lymexylon Fabricius, 1775
- Melittomma Murray, 1867
- Melittommopsis Lane, 1955
- Protomelittomma Wheeler, 1986
- Urtea Paulus, 2004
Morphology
Adult morphology:
- 5–40 mm long; elongate to slender, parallel-sided, vestiture consisting of fine setae; conspicuously necked to not necked; somewhat waisted.
- Head short, typically narrowed behind large protruding eyes forming a slight neck; surface punctate, with or without epicranial pit.
- Antennae short 11-segmented, filiform/serrate and often sexually dimorphic.
- Maxillary palpi 4-segmented, simple in most females, and with apical segment modified into a complex flabellate or plumose organ in males-palporgan.
- Tarsi 5-5-5 with legs slender, moderately long.
- Hind-leg coxae extending laterally to meet the elytra (Lymexylon), or not markedly extended laterally (Elateroides).
- Elytra individually tapered to their apices to not individually tapered; fairly short, exposing several terminal abdominal 1-3 tergites; all articulated and moveable.
- Wings with fairly complete venation, radial cell short or absent.
Immature Morphology:
- Whitish-yellow, elongate, thin, cylindrical with short but well developed legs.
- Prognathous, stemmata absent or present may have eye spots.
- Abdominal modifications found in older larvae.
Classification
The Superfamily Lymexyloidea is currently within Series Cucujoidea. The internal phylogeny has not been clearly understood/completed by experts. Morphological data places the family inside the Tenebrionoidea, while molecular data place it as sister taxon to Tenebrionoidea, and polyphyletic.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Piper, Ross (2007), Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press.
- ↑ Lymexylidae Species List at Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog. Texas A&M University. Retrieved on 17 May 2012.
References
- Arnett, Ross H., et al., eds. American Beetles: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. Vol. 2. CRC Press, 2002: 261-262. EBSCO printed on Sept. 21,2013.
- Casari, S.A. and Albertoni, F.F., (2013). First Instar Larva of Atractocerus brasiliensis (Lepeletier & Audinet-Serville, 1825) (Lymexylidae, Atractocerinae). Volume 53(27): 359‑372.
- Kundrata, R., Bocakova, M., & Bocak, L. (2014). The comprehensive phylogeny of the superfamily Elateroidea (Coleoptera: Elateriformia). Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 76, 162-171.
- Triplehorn, Charles A., Norman F. Johnson, and Donald J. Borror. Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects. Belmont, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole, 2005.
- Wheeler, Q. D. (1986). Revision of the genera of Lymexylidae (Coleoptera: Cucujiformia). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 183:113-210.
External links
- L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz, Lymexylidae
- Lymexylidae on ITIS
- A video of Atractocerus brasiliensis, a ship timber beetle in Costa Rica