ambrosia beetle

Ambrosia beetles are small, wood-boring insects belonging to the family Scolytidae. They are known for cultivating a specific type of fungus, called ambrosia fungus, within trees. This fungus serves as their primary food source and is also used to feed their larvae.12

These beetles bore into the wood of trees, creating galleries. The female beetle constructs a main gallery with separate chambers for eggs. Within the main gallery, she cultivates the ambrosia fungus on a mixture of excrement and wood chips. The galleries made by ambrosia beetles are recognizable by their consistent size and a dark staining caused by the fungus growing on the gallery walls. Some ambrosia beetles have specialized structures called mycetangia to carry the fungi when they move to new host trees.34