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Beetle feeding habits

decomposers of wood and other vegetation.

Specialized fungivores include Endomychidae

(handsome fungus beetles), Erotylidae (pleasing

fungus beetles), Ciidae (minute fungus beetles),

Mycetophagidae (hairy fungus beetles), and many

Tenebrionidae, particularly in the tribe

Bolitophagini (Tenebrioninae), which often

have horns on their head and thorax. Many

fungivorous beetles are found on their host fungi

all year round in temperate countries, and some

such as Tetratomidae and Phloiophilidae are

found most easily in winter.

Specialized fungivorous beetles feed and

develop on fresh fungi, but when the fungal

fruiting bodies start to decay, fly maggots and a

wide range of predatory beetles and scavenging

beetles arrive, including Staphylinidae, Silphidae,

and Histeridae. Other families such as Latridiidae

and Ptiliidae may feed on fungal spores.

Smaller fungi support a range of different

beetle families: sooty bark disease, a fungus that

causes a black mold under the bark of maples,

particularly sycamore maple, has a very

characteristic suite of beetles of the families

Zopheridae and Latridiidae associated with it,

which are rarely, if ever, seen anywhere else.

Many beetles actively spread fungi from tree to

tree, in some cases acting as vectors that can

spread a pathogenic fungus from an infected tree

to a healthy one. A famous example are the elm

bark beetles (genus Scolytus), which have mycangia,

specialized pockets that carry fungal spores with

which they inoculate their burrows to grow a

fungal crop for their larvae to feed on. This has

resulted in the spread of Dutch elm disease.

Recent DNA studies have shown that most

wood-feeding beetles, even those lacking

mycangia, carry on their bodies the spores of

many species of wood-decay fungi. This may

FUNGI

Fungi are incredibly diverse in morphology and

ecology, ranging from microscopic single-celled

yeasts to gigantic mushrooms; bread-molds to

huge bracket fungi that grow for months or even

years. Fungi show a very wide range of ecological

relationships that involve Coleoptera, from beetle

food to beetle parasites.

Many beetle families have evolved to exploit

fungal fruiting bodies as a food resource,

particularly abundant in wet tropical forests where

fungi and beetles are among the most important