Mycophagous beetle on bracket fungi !

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    • Neu

    This is a bit off topic but I think it is both related and educative.


    I was cleaning my mycology desk and preparing for a fresh start for the next season, and there were some old specimens of bracket fungi (Inonotus and Ganoderma, etc ). The hard specimens were soft and semi-pulverised by some small (2mm) beetle consuming them. They have not seen water for four months, but they hatched within the last two-three months. There were a lot. Soft moving, afraid of light with shiny brown exoskeleton and quite attractive antlers, made of three pale brown brushes. I was wondering if you had met these and what beetles they are. A quick search resulted in this interesting article:



    Mycophagous Insects, bugs that love mushrooms just as much as you do
    When you think of fungi, do you think of a delicious dish or odd-ball orbs of various colors that grow in the forest? Well, for many insects, they call the…
    www.whistlernaturalists.ca


    Last pic is very close (Ciidae) and wonder what species would be for South Europe (/ Mediterranean Region). Cis bidentatus recorded from Uk and the north.



    • Neu

    Hi Steve, nice zoo you have there. I remeber having a little bracket fungus collection in the attic of our house when I was a little boy. (no special mycological interest, I simply collected anything collectable back then) In summer it surely was about 60°C up there. Nonetheless this collection had nearly completely turned to dust when I checked it one day. These beetles had done a good job. I think it is a common problem with samples of these kind of fungi. Of course one could put it in the oven for some time to kill the larve before storing samples in the archive, yet nowaday this could be problematic if one wants to do some genetic analysis later. If the fridge would kill them, i am not so sure. So mabye permethrine? i have no idea, maybe ask in a museum what they use to preseve their pieces.

    In identification of the species i cannot help but in this site they say ID via foto usually is not possible.

    So far my experience with this topic,
    Ingo

    • Neu

    Hi Ingo.


    Thanks for sharing your experience. Would freezing samples for a day kill the eggs/larvae and leave the fungal tissue good for microscopy and molecular analysis later? Can this be adapted to to some larvae of maggots in soft mushrooms ? ( who feast out when drying specimens)!


    BTW I couldn't go on the link provided - would love to have a look.


    In this case the best thing to do is ask and send samples to an expert, if he is interested to follow up in the material. I do have some bugs in 70% ethanol and of course a stereo microscope.


    Cheers