''Euplatypus parallelus'', previously known as ''Platypus parallelus'', is a species of

ambrosia beetle Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead, stressed, and healthy trees in which t ...

in the weevil family

Curculionidae The Curculionidae are a family of weevils, commonly called snout beetles or true weevils. They are one of the largest animal families, with 6,800 genera and 83,000 species described worldwide. They are the sister group to the family Brentidae. T ...

. The adults and larvae form galleries in various species of tree and logs. It is native to Central and South America but has spread globally, is present in Africa and is well established in tropical Asia.

Description

Adult beetles are between in length and are a yellowish-brown to brown colour, the elytra having darker brown tips. The holes excavated by the adults and larvae are about in diameter.

Distribution and habitat

''Euplatypus parallelus'' is native to Central and South America, but has spread invasively to Africa, tropical southern Asia, Wallacea and New Guinea, probably via timber imports. It arrived in Africa in the late 1800s and was first recorded in Asia after World War II, became widespread in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and was present in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia by the 1980s. It soon became the most significant ambrosia beetle in Thailand, attacking both living trees, typically stressed or diseased specimens, and recently fallen or cut timber. It has been reported in over 80 species of tree from 25 families, including live

rubber trees ''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae originally native to the Amazon basin, but is now pan ...

in Brazil and Indian rosewood in Bangladesh. The first recordings from China were made on Hainan Island in 2016.

Ecology

The male beetle excavates a short tunnel in the bark of the host tree or log and then releases a pheromone on the surface which attracts a female. After mating, the female enters the tunnel and creates an extensive series of galleries in which the eggs are laid. Like other ambrosia beetles, the adults carry with them a fungal culture with which they inoculate the walls of the galleries; the female and developing larvae feed exclusively on the mycelia of this cultivated fungal garden. The wood beside the galleries is blackened by the fungus and

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the G ...

is pushed out of the entrance hole in long strings. After pupation, the new adults emerge into the open through the original entrance hole. The beetles sometimes introduce pathogenic fungi into the tree and have been implicated in transmitting '' Fusarium'', the cause of a wilt disease, in southern Asia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q50389376 Platypodinae Beetles of Africa Beetles of Asia Beetles of Central America Beetles of South America Beetles described in 1801 Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius