What are ambrosia galleries?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

November 5, 2003

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The platypodids "flat-footed" or ambrosia beetles comprise about 1,000 species in the subfamily Platypodinae. The genus Platypus has seven species in North America. They are tiny social beetles, most are female. They are haplodiploids; females hatch from fertilized eggs and are diploids (paired chromosomes), males are haploids (single set of chromosomes) hatching from unfertilized eggs.

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Ambrosia beetles bore into wood.

Ambrosia beetles were named for those species that farm ambrosia fungus (Ambrosiella spp.). The females excavate tunnels (galleries) in wood; some species select living, but often stressed, trees, some use only recently deceased trees. The Platypus species native to the southeastern U.S. use dead trees before the wood becomes too dry or begins to decay.

An ambrosia beetle has a specialized hollow under its thorax called a mycangium. The excavated gallery is planted with asexual fungal spores (clones) carried in the mycangium from the beetle's mother's gallery. The beetle tends her garden and her offspring feed strictly on the fungus. Since they are social, the beetles mate among the siblings.

Some ambrosia fungi are only known from beetle galleries and it is believed that those associations are obligate--the fungi cannot survive without the beetle farmers. Generations of closely related beetles farm generations of cloned ambrosia fungus.

For the ambrosia fungus to survive and be of use to the beetle, it must be farmed inside wood that has good moisture content. Ambrosia beetle attack on recently cut trees can greatly reduce the strength and value of lumber. After trees are cut, the lumber must be quickly dried and milled to prevent an infestation.

But there are instances that the ambrosia beetle increases the value of the lumber. Sometimes a second fungus is introduced into the gallery. This fungus stains the grain of the wood. The fungal stains increase the wood's decorative value especially in birch, oak, and maple. If only a few beetles infest the wood, the naturally stained wood makes beautiful furniture, bowls, and boxes.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has an article and photographs of ambrosia beetles and a gallery of Xylosandrus crassiusculus with larvae and black fungus.. To read the article and view photographs, click on the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_beetle

(Compiled from: "Ambrosia Beetles -- a study in symbiosis", Douglas C. Allen, State University of New York, Jul/Aug 1995; "Fungus-farming insects: Multiple origins and diverse evolutionary histories", Ulrich G Mueller and Nicole Gerardo, PNAS, Vol.99, no.24, Nov. 26, 2002; "Ambrosia Beetles", T.H. Atkinson, Featured Creatures, University of Florida, Nov 2000 and "Pre-human agriculture: Ants, termites, and beetles", L. Saxe and P. Gepts, Lecture outline, University of California, Davis, 2002)

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Suggested Reading:

What is a woodworm? Renfield's Garden - November 12, 2003
What are ambrosia galleries? Renfield's Garden - November 5, 2003
What hardwood tree has no growth rings? Weird Plants - July 11, 2002
What is the Forest of Violins? Plants that Changed History - November 11, 2003

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