ambrosia beetle

English

One species of ambrosia beetle

Noun

ambrosia beetle (plural ambrosia beetles)

1. Any of those species of true weevils (family Curculionidae) that live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi, including almost all of the species of the subfamily Platypodinae and some of the species of bark beetles in Scolytinae.
   • 1897, Henry Guernsey Hubbard, The ambrosia beetles of the United States:
   • 2005, Fernando E. Vega, Insect-Fungal Associations: Ecology and Evolution, page 258:

     There are also parallels and interesting contrasts between mycophagous bark beetles and ambrosia beetles in the way they carry their fungal symbionts, the range of fungi that have been exploited by the beetles, and the morphological adaptations that some of the fungi have made to maintain the symbioses.

Synonyms

• platypodine

Further reading

• ambrosia beetle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia