Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) logs in the Atlantic Forest biome: first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Col: Cerambycidae) and a new host for Temnopis megacephala (Col: Cerambycidae) / Troncos de Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) no bioma da Mata Atlântica: primeira planta hospedeira de Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Col: Cerambycidae) e uma nova planta hospedeira para Temnopis megacephala (Col: Cerambycidae)

Wood-boring beetles develop in live trees and dead wood, performing ecological services such as decomposition and regulation of forest resources. Species of the Cerambycidae family, widely distributed in the world, bore into the trunks of trees and dead wood in native and cultivated areas. The objective is to report the first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and a new host plant for Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. Three logs, with one-meter-long by 20 cm in diameter, were cut from the trunk of a healthy Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) tree in October 2013 and tied in the understory at 1.5m high in the Rio Doce State Park, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The logs, exposed in the forest, were each removed after 40, 80 and 120 days and stored individually in a cardboard box in the "Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq)" in the Rio Doce State Park. A total of 94 individuals of T. lineatocolle and 228 of T. megacephala emerged from the A. colubrina logs. This is the first report of a host plant for T. lineatocolle and a new host plant for T. megacephala.

Besouros broqueadores se desenvolvem em árvores vivas e madeira morta, realizando serviços ecológicos como decomposição e regulação de recursos da floresta. Espécies da família Cerambycidae, amplamente distribuídas no mundo, perfuram o caule de árvores e madeira morta em áreas nativas e cultivadas. O objetivo é relatar a primeira planta hospedeira de Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) e uma nova planta hospedeira para Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) no bioma da Mata Atlântica brasileira. Três toras, com um metro de comprimento por 20 cm de diâmetro, foram cortadas de uma árvore sadia de Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) em outubro de 2013 e amarradas no sub-bosque a 1,5m de altura no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce, estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. As toras, expostas na floresta, foram removidas, cada uma, após 40, 80 e 120 dias e armazenadas, individualmente, em caixas de papelão no “Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq)” no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce. Um total de 94 indivíduos de T. lineatocolle e 228 de T. megacephala emergiu das toras de A. colubrina. Esse é o primeiro registro de uma planta hospedeira para T. lineatocolle e o de uma nova planta hospedeira para T. megacephala.

Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) logs in the Atlantic Forest biome: first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Col.: Cerambycidae) and a new host for Temnopis megacephala (Col.: Cerambycidae)

Abstract Wood-boring beetles develop in live trees and dead wood, performing ecological services such as decomposition and regulation of forest resources. Species of the Cerambycidae family, widely distributed in the world, bore into the trunks of trees and dead wood in native and cultivated areas. The objective is to report the first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and a new host plant for Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. Three logs, with one-meter-long by 20 cm in diameter, were cut from the trunk of a healthy Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) tree in October 2013 and tied in the understory at 1.5m high in the Rio Doce State Park, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The logs, exposed in the forest, were each removed after 40, 80 and 120 days and stored individually in a cardboard box in the Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq) in the Rio Doce State Park. A total of 94 individuals of T. lineatocolle and 228 of T. megacephala emerged from the A. colubrina logs. This is the first report of a host plant for T. lineatocolle and a new host plant for T. megacephala.

Resumo Besouros broqueadores se desenvolvem em árvores vivas e madeira morta, realizando serviços ecológicos como decomposição e regulação de recursos da floresta. Espécies da família Cerambycidae, amplamente distribuídas no mundo, perfuram o caule de árvores e madeira morta em áreas nativas e cultivadas. O objetivo é relatar a primeira planta hospedeira de Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) e uma nova planta hospedeira para Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) no bioma da Mata Atlântica brasileira. Três toras, com um metro de comprimento por 20 cm de diâmetro, foram cortadas de uma árvore sadia de Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) em outubro de 2013 e amarradas no sub-bosque a 1,5m de altura no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce, estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. As toras, expostas na floresta, foram removidas, cada uma, após 40, 80 e 120 dias e armazenadas, individualmente, em caixas de papelão no Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq) no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce. Um total de 94 indivíduos de T. lineatocolle e 228 de T. megacephala emergiu das toras de A. colubrina. Esse é o primeiro registro de uma planta hospedeira para T. lineatocolle e o de uma nova planta hospedeira para T. megacephala.

Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) logs in the Atlantic Forest biome: first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Col: Cerambycidae) and a new host for Temnopis megacephala (Col: Cerambycidae) / Troncos de Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) no bioma da Mata Atlântica: primeira planta hospedeira de Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Col: Cerambycidae) e uma nova planta hospedeira para Temnopis megacephala (Col: Cerambycidae)

Wood-boring beetles develop in live trees and dead wood, performing ecological services such as decomposition and regulation of forest resources. Species of the Cerambycidae family, widely distributed in the world, bore into the trunks of trees and dead wood in native and cultivated areas. The objective is to report the first host plant for Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and a new host plant for Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. Three logs, with one-meter-long by 20 cm in diameter, were cut from the trunk of a healthy Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) tree in October 2013 and tied in the understory at 1.5m high in the Rio Doce State Park, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The logs, exposed in the forest, were each removed after 40, 80 and 120 days and stored individually in a cardboard box in the "Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq)" in the Rio Doce State Park. A total of 94 individuals of T. lineatocolle and 228 of T. megacephala emerged from the A. colubrina logs. This is the first report of a host plant for T. lineatocolle and a new host plant for T. megacephala.

Besouros broqueadores se desenvolvem em árvores vivas e madeira morta, realizando serviços ecológicos como decomposição e regulação de recursos da floresta. Espécies da família Cerambycidae, amplamente distribuídas no mundo, perfuram o caule de árvores e madeira morta em áreas nativas e cultivadas. O objetivo é relatar a primeira planta hospedeira de Thoracibidion lineatocolle (Thomson, 1865) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) e uma nova planta hospedeira para Temnopis megacephala (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) no bioma da Mata Atlântica brasileira. Três toras, com um metro de comprimento por 20 cm de diâmetro, foram cortadas de uma árvore sadia de Anadenanthera colubrina (Fabaceae) em outubro de 2013 e amarradas no sub-bosque a 1,5m de altura no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce, estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. As toras, expostas na floresta, foram removidas, cada uma, após 40, 80 e 120 dias e armazenadas, individualmente, em caixas de papelão no "Laboratório de Campo do Projeto de Ecologia de Longa Duração (PELD-CNPq)" no Parque Estadual do Rio Doce. Um total de 94 indivíduos de T. lineatocolle e 228 de T. megacephala emergiu das toras de A. colubrina. Esse é o primeiro registro de uma planta hospedeira para T. lineatocolle e o de uma nova planta hospedeira para T. megacephala.

Belowground community turnover accelerates the decomposition of standing dead wood.

Standing dead trees (snags) decompose more slowly than downed dead wood and provide critical habitat for many species. The rate at which snags fall therefore influences forest carbon dynamics and biodiversity. Fall rates correlate strongly with mean annual temperature, presumably because warmer climates facilitate faster wood decomposition and hence degradation of the structural stability of standing wood. These faster decomposition rates coincide with turnover from fungal-dominated wood decomposer communities in cooler forests to codomination by fungi and termites in warmer regions. A key question for projecting forest dynamics is therefore whether temperature effects on wood decomposition arise primarily because warmer conditions facilitate faster decomposer metabolism, or are also influenced indirectly by belowground community turnover (e.g., termites exert additional influence beyond fungal-plus-bacterial mediated decomposition). To test between these possibilities, we simulate standing dead trees with untreated wooden posts and follow them in the field across 5 yr at 12 sites, before measuring buried, soil-air interface and aerial post sections to quantify wood decomposition and organism activities. High termite activities at the warmer sites are associated with rates of postfall that are three times higher than at the cooler sites. Termites primarily consume buried wood, with decomposition rates greatest where termite activities are highest. However, where higher microbial and termite activities co-occur, they appear to compensate for one another first, and then to slow decomposition rates at their highest activities, suggestive of interference competition. If the range of microbial and termite codomination of wood decomposer communities expands under climate warming, our data suggest that expansion will accelerate snag fall with consequent effects on forest carbon cycling and biodiversity in forests previously dominated by microbial decomposers.

A new and likely extinct species of Antilissus Sharp, 1879 (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Colydiinae) from Makauwahi Cave, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands.

This paper describes Antilissus makauwahi, sp. nov., from the subfossil record of Makauwahi Cave on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. This new species is the second species of Antilissus Sharp from Hawaii and second described species for the genus. The type species of Antilissus, A. aper Sharp, has been widely collected from under the bark of dead or dying trees, at higher elevations, on all major Hawaiian Islands. In contrast, A. makauwahi is so far known only from a small number of subfossil sclerites recovered from sediments dating to before human arrival in Hawaii (800 years before present). This potentially extinct species adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting the widespread extinction of Pacific island insects after human arrival.

Five new Pycnomerus Erichson (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Pycnomerini) from Raivavae, French Polynesia.

We describe five new species of Pycnomerus (P. mahanatoa, P. rairua, P. raivavae, P. taralewisae, and P. vavitu spp. nov.) from subfossil material collected on the island of Raivavae in the Austral Archipelago of French Polynesia. Like the two species of Pycnomerus recently described from Rimatara (Porch Smith 2017), we consider it is probable that some or even most of the endemic Raivavae species are globally extinct. This is because the species have, so far, only been found in as subfossil specimens in sediments that date to the period immediately before or just after human arrival on the island (c.1300 AD), they have not been collected historically, and very little indigenous forest of Raivavae remains. These species add to the growing body of knowledge regarding the zopherid fauna of eastern Polynesia, which is, and unfortunately will always likely be, based primarily on the subfossil record from the region.

Establishment and Maintenance of Power Lines are Important for Insect Diversity in Central Europe.

Open habitats are disappearing from European forests. This is mainly due to various management-related practices, such as afforestation and the maintenance of closed canopy plantation forests. Open forests are also declining as a result of the abandonment of traditional forest use practices and natural succession. The effects of the establishment and maintenance of power lines as highly artificial but open habitats in forests on native insect biodiversity remain relatively poorly investigated. We investigated differences in biodiversity between forests and open habitats under power lines in Poland. Namely, we focused on nine insect taxa using the most suitable methods for data collection, i.e., observation and trapping. The studied habitats were forests used for timber production dominated by Scots pine, which is the most commercially important tree species in Poland. In total, we recorded the presence of more than 400 insect species. We found that butterflies as well as ground beetles were significantly more biodiverse under the power lines compared with the forest interior. Furthermore, jewel beetles, long-horned beetles, weevils and bark beetles, rove beetles and darkling beetles appeared to be more species rich under the power lines, click beetles were indifferent, and only lady-bird beetles appeared to be more abundant in forests. Additionally, ground beetles with a strict affinity for forests were surprisingly not negatively affected by power lines. We highlighted the importance of forest-free areas under power lines for the improvement of native forest biodiversity. Artificial and relatively intensive management activities related to the distribution of electric energy play important roles in creating novel or alternative habitats for many insects. Our paper contributes much to the knowledge about the importance of artificial open areas for the diversity of insects.

New Pycnomerus Erichson (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Pycnomerini) from Rimatara, French Polynesia.

We describe two species of Pycnomerus, P. rimatara and P. prebblei, using subfossil material, from the island of Rimatara in the Austral Archipelago of French Polynesia. We consider it likely that these species are globally extinct, a result of the combination of a range of factors including: their probable single island endemic status, the lack of intact indigenous forest on Rimatara, their occurrence in the subfossil record only in samples older than 200-300 years before the present, and lack of historical collections. The potential extinction of these species reflects the long history of human transformation of Polynesian lowland forest habitats, especially the use of fire to transform landscapes, and parallels extensive and well-known extinctions in birds and land snails.

The presence of a mycangium in European Sinodendron cylindricum (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) and the associated yeast symbionts.

Part of the exoskeleton of some wood-inhabiting insects is modified to form a mycangium, which is a specialized organ used to convey fungal spores or yeasts to their offspring. Although most stag beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) are known to have female-specific mycangia and associated yeast symbionts, the evolutionary origin of the mycangium in this group remains unresolved. Here, we report the presence of a mycangium and associated yeast symbionts in the European horned stag beetle Sinodendron cylindricum (L.), which belongs to an ancestral clade of the Lucanidae. The mycangium of S. cylindricum is shown to be female-specific and have the same developmental origin as that of other stag beetles. A total of five yeast strains were isolated from adult mycangia and larval gut of S. cylindricum Of these, we suggest that SICYAM1 is an undescribed yeast with taxonomic novelty, and have identified SICYLG3 as the xylose-fermenting yeast Scheffersomyces insectosa using nuclear ribosomal RNA and ITS sequences. The remaining three yeast strains, SICYAM2, SICYLG1, and SICYLG2, were assigned to the genus Sugiyamaella Yeast density in the adult mycangium was lower than that of the more evolutionarily advanced stag beetles, the European Lucanus cervus (L.) and Dorcus parallelipipedus (L.), which were also examined in this study. No living yeasts were isolated from the adult guts. However, a third instar larva of S. cylindricum harbored 10(4)-10(6) living yeasts in each gut region, which suggests that gut yeasts play an important role in these wood-feeding larvae.

Larvae and pupae of two North American darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Stenochiinae), Glyptotus cribratus LeConte and Cibdelis blaschkei Mannerheim, with notes on ecological and behavioural similarities.

THIS STUDY DESCRIBES AND ILLUSTRATES THE LARVAE AND PUPAE OF TWO NORTH AMERICAN DARKLING BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: Tenebrionidae) in the subfamily Stenochiinae, Glyptotus cribratus LeConte from the southeastern United States, and Cibdelis blaschkei Mannerheim from California. Both species inhabit forested regions where adults and larvae occur in soft rotten dry wood of dead branches on living trees or in sections recently fallen from them. Species identity was confirmed by rearing of adults and pupae and the discovery of both in pupal cells with associated exuvia. Specimen label data and notes on habitats are provided. Antipredator defense structures and behaviour are noted for larvae and pupae of both species.