Beetles (Coleoptera) Associated with Xylotrophic Fungi of the Genus Pleurotus (Fr.) P. Kumm. (Basidiomycetes, Agaricales) in the South Urals

Abstract: Research in the South Urals has revealed 73 species of beetles from 21 families associated with 3 species of wood-destroying basidium fungi of the genus Pleurotus: P.calyptratus, P.ostreatus, and P.pulmonarius. These beetles belong to different groups: specialized mycetobiont carpophorophages, including typical mycetophages (17 species), mycetosaprophages (9 species), complete mycetophages (2 species); eurybionts, including obligate mycetophages (16 species), mixophages (15 species), facultative mycetophages (8 species), predators (3 species), and occasional visitors (3 species). The fruit bodies of oyster mushrooms are actively populated by the main destructors of basidiomes, including typical concealed mycetophagous monophages: Triplax aenea, T.rufipes, T.scutellaris (Erotylidae), and species with wider trophic associations: Atheta gagatina, Gyrophaena bihamata, Lordithon lunulatus, Oxyporus maxillosus, O.mannerheimi (Staphylinidae), Cyllodes ater (Nitidulidae), and Tetratoma ancora (Tetratomidae). The adult mixomycetophages Agathidium mandibulare, A.seminulum, Amphicyllis globus (Leiodidae), as well as the mycetophages Scaphisoma agaricinum, S.inopinatum, S.subalpinum (Staphylinidae), and Cychramus luteus (Nitidulidae) that are not specialized to oyster mushrooms are sometimes found on the spore-bearing fungi. The mycetophagous polyphages Dacne bipustulata (Erotylidae), Mycetophagus piceus, and M.quadripustulatus predominate in dying and dead fruit bodies, while Mycetophagus ater, M.multipunctatus, M.tschitscherini, and Litargus connexus (Mycetophagidae) are less common. Dead, waterlogged, and moldy basidiomes are inhabited by eurytopic species associated with various decomposing substrates: Anthobium atrocephalum, A.melanocephalum, Cilea silphoides, Megarthrus denticollis, M.depressus, M.hemipterus, Oxypoda alternans, Tachinus laticollis (Staphylinidae), Endomychus coccineus (Endomychidae), Epuraea variegata (Nitidulidae), Stephostethus pandellei (Latridiidae), and some others. Such species as Cerylon deplanatum, C.ferrugineum, C.histeroides (Cerylonidae), Rhizophagus parvulus (Monotomidae), Glischrochilus hortensis (Nitidulidae), Bitoma crenata (Colydiidae), Melandrya dubia (Melandryidae), and Upis ceramboides (Tenebrionidae) usually develop under the dead birch and aspen bark in the mycelial layer of Pleurotus fungi. © 2022, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.