A review of the distribution and host plant associations of the platypodine ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae) of Australia, with an electronic species identification key.

Ambrosia beetles (Platypodinae and some Scolytinae) are ecologically and economically important weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) that develop within the sapwood and heartwood of woody plants, and their larval and adult stages are dependent on fungal symbionts. Platypodinae mostly occur in tropical and subtropical biomes, with a few species occurring in temperate regions. Australia has 44 recorded platypodine species including 13 species which may only have been intercepted at or near ports of entries and are without established populations in Australia. The host tree associations and biogeography of Australian Platypodinae are largely undocumented, and no comprehensive identification key exists. Here, we review species records, host tree associations, biogeographic distributions, and morphological characteristics of Australian Platypodinae. For this, we examined collection specimens, monographs, catalogues, taxonomic inventories, journal articles and online databases, and developed an electronic LUCID identification key for 36 species recorded in Australia. This review and identification key will be a valuable resource for forestry managers and biosecurity officers and will support diagnostics and future research of these beetles, their biology, and ecological interactions.

Monogamous sperm storage and permanent worker sterility in a long-lived ambrosia beetle.

The lifetime monogamy hypothesis claims that the evolution of permanently unmated worker castes always requires maximal full-sibling relatedness to be established first. The long-lived diploid ambrosia beetle Austroplatypus incompertus (Schedl) is known to be highly social, but whether it has lifetime sterile castes has remained unclear. Here we show that the gallery systems of this beetle inside the heartwood of live Eucalyptus trees are always inhabited by a single core family, consisting of a lifetime-inseminated mother, permanently unmated daughter workers, and immatures that are always full siblings to each other and their adult caretakers. Overall sex ratios are even. Males always disperse and only survive as stored sperm, but female offspring either disperse to mate and found their own colony or assume unmated worker roles, probably surviving for many years without any reproductive potential because tarsal loss precludes later dispersal. A well-supported Platypodinae phylogeny has allowed us to infer that parental monogamy evolved before a lifetime-unmated worker caste emerged, confirming the prediction that monogamy and full-sibling relatedness are necessary conditions for the evolution of such workers. The initially very challenging but ultimately long-term stable nesting habitat in live trees appears to have provided the crucial benefit/cost factor for maintaining selection for permanently sterile workers after strict monogamy and lifetime sperm storage had become established in this curculionid coleopteran lineage.

Potential economic pests of solanaceous crops: a new species of Solanum-feeding psyllid from Australia and first record from New Zealand of Acizzia solanicola (Hemiptera: Psyllidae).

Acizzia credoensis sp. n. is described from a single population on the native plant, Solanum lasiophyllum, from semi-arid Western Australia. The host range of Acizzia solanicola Kent & Taylor, initially recorded as damaging eggplant, S. melongena, in commercial crops and gardens and on wild tobacco bush, S. mauritianum in eastern Australia, is expanded to include the following Solanaceae: rock nightshade, S. petrophilum, cape gooseberry, Physalis peruviana, and an undetermined species of angel's trumpet Brugmansia and Datura. New Zealand specimens of A. solanicola collected in early 2012 from S. mauritianum are the first record for this species from outside Australia, and possibly represent a very recent incursion. The potential for the solanaceous-inhabiting Psyllidae to vector Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, an economically important plant pathogen, on native Australian Solanaceae is discussed. The occurrence of A. credoensis and A. solanicola on native Australian Solanum supports the Australian origin for the solanaceous-inhabiting Acizzia psyllids.

The external morphology of Austroplatypus incompertus (Schedl) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Platypodinae).

Previous descriptions of adult Austroplatypus incompertus (Schedl) are completed by the addition of descriptions and illustrations of the adults and, in particular, their maxillary palps. I describe and illustrate the non-adult phases of the life cycle and provide a key to the larval instars. The sexual dimorphism of Austroplatypus incompertus is atypical and includes a latitudinal cline which obeys Bergmann's rule. The taxonomic position of the genus within the Platypodinae is clarified. Platypus incostatus Schedl is recognised as the male of the species, and hence a new synonym of Austroplatypus incompertus.