Fungivore host‐use groups from cluster analysis: patterns of utilisation of fungal fruiting bodies by ciid beetles

Abstract

Abstract. 1. Ciid beetles typically live and breed in the fruiting bodies of lignicolous basidiomycete fungi. This study was undertaken to address the lack of an objective examination of patterns of host use by ciids. 2. Cluster analysis of ciid host‐use datasets from Britain, Germany, North America, and Japan, and subsequent cross‐dataset comparisons, demonstrated the existence of ciid host‐use patterns of wide geographical occurrence. These patterns were formalised as ciid host‐use groups. 3. Six Holarctic ciid host‐use groups, and two host‐use subgroups, were identified, and are described. Each host‐use group comprises an assemblage of fungal genera and the breeding ciids that it supports. Each taxon belongs to only a single host‐use group, but may be associated with several members of that group. There is a strong tendency for closely related taxa to belong to the same host‐use group. 4. It is suggested that ciid host‐use groups are defined ultimately by host chemistry, with the ciids that belong to a particular group recognising, and responding positively to, emitted volatiles characterising the fungi belonging to that group. 5. The idea of the host‐use group bears comparison with the concepts of niche and guild, but is not equivalent to either. 6. Ciid host‐use groups have a valuable role to play in underpinning future studies of ciid ecology, also the systematics of both ciids and their fungal hosts.

Species coexistence patterns in a mycophagous insect community inhabiting the wood-decaying bracket fungus Cryptoporus volvatus (Polyporaceae: Basidiomycota)

“…Circumstantial evidence for successional niche partitioning is provided by Jonsell & Nordlander (2004) who show that polyphagous insects tend to use decaying sporocarps and so avoid the chemical defences of fungi. Using cross-dataset comparison and cluster analyses Orledge & Reynolds (2005) confirmed that the resource partitioning is determined by the ciid beetles' specific response to the age dependent characteristic volatile emissions of their fungal hosts (see also references therein). Spatial mechanisms greatly influence species occurrence patterns (Jonsell et al, 1999;Jonsson, 2003;Komonen, 2003aKomonen, , 2008Komonen & Kouki, 2005), but have never been explicitly linked with species coexistence.…”

The Cis bilamellatus species-group (Coleoptera, Ciidae) in southern Africa: Cis mooihoekite sp. n. and new distributional records

“…Data on host fungi extracted from labels are summarised in the sections "Host fungi", together with corresponding number of records in each fungus species and indicating breeding records. The criteria, provided in Orledge and Reynolds (2005) for determining breeding records, have been followed. The distribution map ( Fig.…”

The non-pest Australasian fungivore Cis bilamellatus Wood (Coleoptera: Ciidae) in northern Europe: spread dynamics, invasion success and ecological impact

“…These issues are addressed here by a comprehensive examination of the ongoing invasion of Britain and northern Europe by the non-pest saproxylic beetle Cis bilamellatus Wood. Cis bilamellatus is an Australasian species that was discovered new to science in south-east England in 1884 (Wood 1884). It belongs to the Ciidae, a family of obligate fungivores that typically live and breed in the fruiting bodies of wood-rotting basidiomycetes (Lawrence 1973;Reibnitz 1999;Orledge and Reynolds 2005), and may well have entered Britain in fungus material sent to Kew Herbarium, near London, during the middle of the nineteenth century (Paviour-Smith 1960a). Another four non-indigenous ciids (Ceracis cucullatus (Mellié), Cis lineatosetosus Pool, Ropalodontus baudueri Abeille de Perrin and a species of Octotemnus Mellié) are known to have been similarly introduced into British herbaria, but none are established in the wild in Britain (Orledge and Booth 2006).…”