Bark and ambrosia beetles are ecologically and economically important phloeophagous insects that often have complex symbiotic relationships with fungi and mites. These systems are greatly understudied in Africa. In the present study we identified bark and ambrosia beetles, their phoretic mites and their main fungal associates from native Virgilia trees in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of Sout...

Coleoptera (beetles) is a massively successful order of insects, distinguished by their evolutionarily modified forewings called elytra. These structures are often presumed to have been a major driving force for the successful radiation of this taxon, by providing beetles with protection against a variety of harsh environmental factors. However, few studies have directly demonstrated the functi...

From 2003 to 2008, 176,643 Gratiana boliviana Spaeth (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) were released in Florida as part of a biological control program targeting tropical soda apple (TSA) Solanum viarum Dunal (Solanaceae). The spatial distribution of releases was clustered with more beetles released in south/central Florida than further north. A survey conducted in the fall of 2008 found G. bolviana ...

From 2003 to 2008, 176,643 Gratiana boliviana Spaeth (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) were released in Florida as part of a biological control program targeting tropical soda apple (TSA) Solanum viarum Dunal (Solanaceae). The spatial distribution of releases was clustered with more beetles released in south/central Florida than further north. A survey conducted in the fall of 2008 found G. bolviana ...

Batrachotoxins are neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids first isolated from a Colombian poison-dart frog and later found in certain passerine birds of New Guinea. Neither vertebrate group is thought to produce the toxins de novo, but instead they likely sequester them from dietary sources. Here we describe the presence of high levels of batrachotoxins in a little-studied group of beetles, genus Chore...

The diversity and abundance of auger beetles were compared with ecologically similar families other beetles. It was shown that the ecological niche in dead wood, which Paleogene belonged to bark ambrosia beetles, occupied by Bostrichidae Mesozoic. Seven new species, Poinarinius aristovi sp. nov., P. antonkozlovi lesnei perkovskyi zahradniki borowskii cretaceus nov. from subfamily Alitrepaninae ...

Stereotyped feeding damage attributable solely to rolled-leaf hispine beetles is documented on latest Cretaceous and early Eocene ginger leaves from North Dakota and Wyoming. Hispine beetles (6000 extant species) therefore evolved at least 20 million years earlier than suggested by insect body fossils, and their specialized associations with gingers and ginger relatives are ancient and phylogen...

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The response of beetles to climate change during the Quaternary Period is reviewed for the purpose of evaluating their future response to global warming. Beetles responded to Quaternary climatic changes mostly by dispersal, which ultimately led to large scale changes in geographic distribution. Fragmentation and isolation of populations associated with climate change did not result in either hi...