New species and new records of Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss (Curculionidae, Scolytinae) from China, and resurrection of Scolytoplatypussinensis (Tsai & Huang, 1965) as a distinct species.

This study describes two new species, Scolytoplatypuswugongshanensis Liao, Lai & Beaver, sp. nov. and S.skyliuae Liao, Lai & Beaver, sp. nov., reinstates S.sinensis (Tsai & Huang, 1965) from synonymy with S.mikado (Blandford, 1893), and records five species for the first time from China, S.brahma Blandford, 1898, S.curviciliosus Gebhardt, 2006, S.minimus Hagedorn, 1904, S.ruficauda Eggers, 1939, S.samsinghensis Maiti & Saha, 2009, and three from mainland China, S.blandfordi Gebhardt, 2006, S.calvus Beaver & Liu, 2007, S.pubescens Hagedorn, 1904. A key to the males of Scolytoplatypus species in China is given. Genetic data from four genes indicate a rather isolated position for both new species, although their genetic relationship to each other was close.

Three new species of Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss from China, and notes on the movement and functions of the prosternal processes (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae).

Three new species from China (Yunnan), Scolytoplatypus costatus Gebhardt Beaver, S. geminus Gebhardt Beaver and S. peniculatus Gebhardt Beaver, are described and compared with related species of the genus. The male prosternum of Asian Scolytoplatypus species shows species-specific characters, and frequently bears a pair of processes on or close to the anterior margin. We comment here for the first time on the movement of the processes and their likely functions, and survey their occurrence in Asian species of Scolytoplatypus.

The red-listed species Thamnurgus rossicus in East Europe is a synonym of the rare Central European species, T. petzi (Curculionidae: Scolytinae).

The taxonomic status of Thamnurgus rossicus was evaluated with respect to the morphologically similar T. petzi using genetic markers. Nucleotide data from the mitochondrial COI gene revealed 2.4% variation between the European Alps and Russian steppe populations. The two nuclear DNA markers CAD and EF1á were identical across populations. In view of their similar morphology, genetic composition, and the partial overlap in host plant preferences (Ranunculaceae: Aconitum and Delphinium), T. rossicus is placed in synonymy with T. petzi.

Dryadomyces amasae: a nutritional fungus associated with ambrosia beetles of the genus Amasa (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae).

During surveys of woodlands in Taiwan a previously undescribed fungus Dryadomyces amasae gen. sp. nov., was found in the sapwood of dead angiosperm timbers in the gallery systems of the scolytine ambrosia beetle Amasa concitatus. The fungus grows predominantly in the immediate vicinity of the feeding beetle larvae and serves as a nutritional ambrosia fungus. The transmission of D. amasae to new breeding substrates is ensured by an oral mycetangium, a paired organ which was found in A. concitatus and A. aff. glaber near the mandibles and contained multiple cells of the fungus. Morphologically D. amasae resembles species of Ambrosiella. However, phylogenetic analysis based on partial nucSSU rDNA placed the fungus with certain species of the genus Ambrosiella within the Ophiostomatales, whereas the type species of Ambrosiella, A. xylebori, was assigned to the Microascales. A. xylebori, as well as A. ferruginea and A. hartigii, demonstrated phialidic conidial development, leading to an emendation of the description of the genus Ambrosiella. In contrast, Dryadomyces exhibited conidial development by apical, sympodial wall formation with prominent denticles bearing conidia. Other, previously described Ambrosiella species exhibited non-phialidic conidiogenesis, but lacked denticles on the conidiophores. Consequently, their classification needs further revision.

Conidial development in selected ambrosial species of the genus Raffaelea.

Conidiogenesis of the type species and two additional species of the genus Raffaelea Arx & Hennebert are described. In contrast to previous conclusions based on light microscopy that indicate sympodial production of the conidia, we found that conidium development was by annellidic percurrent proliferation in the type species Raffaelea ambrosiae, as well as in Raffaelea arxii and Raffaelea albimanens. Consequently, this mode of conidium development is similar to the conidiogenesis of anamorphs within the Ophiostomatales, but distinguished by sporodochia formed within the genus Raffaelea. These findings reduce the differences between Raffaelea and other anamorphs with annellidic percurrent proliferation of the conidiogenous cells within the Ophiostomatales to different conidiomata and conidiophores, and they support previous reports of the close phylogenetic relationship between Raffaelea and Ophiostoma.