Figure 1 - uploaded by Dmitry S. Schigel
Content may be subject to copyright.
Phellinus ferrugineofuscus, one of the polypores with unknown beetle associations in Finland. The annual resupinate fruit body of this fungus may extend for several meters on the underside of a spruce log.
Source publication
Seven old growth, mostly spruce- and pine-dominated, protected forests rich in dead wood were inventoried for polypores and polypore associated beetles in Finland from 2001 to 2007; 116 of the 198 polypores were associated with either larvae or adult Coleoptera, and 82 polypore species were neither visited nor colonised by beetles. The reasons for...
Similar publications
Long-term observations on the effects of a fertilization treatment on 137Cs concentrations in forest vegetation are scarce. Needles of Scots pine were used as biological indicators of radionuclide uptake of trees. The fertilization experiments are located in western Finland in an area where radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl accident in 1...
Kotiaho, J.S. 2011. The conservation potential of brook-side key habitats in managed boreal forests. Silva Fennica 45(5): 1041–1052. Today, maintaining biodiversity is included in the targets of boreal forest management. A widespread approach in northern Europe is to identify and preserve woodland key habitats within managed forests. Woodland key h...
Citations
... as host of M. poecilogastra. Schigel (2012) mentioned the wood-inhabiting fungi Physisporinus sanguinolentus as a host of M. poecilogastra. In sum, our findings match the conclusion of Okland (1996), who stated that mycetophilid diversity is much higher in seminatural forests compared to managed forests. ...
Forest management can cause a loss of biodiversity associated with dead wood. Today, vast areas of unmanaged temperate forests are protected forests in the Hyrcanian region in northern Iran. The Hyrcanian forest hosts large numbers of endemic species, grounding its high conservation value. However, few studies have investigated the possible impact of increasing forest management activities in these forests. We surveyed saproxylic flies in 30 managed and unmanaged plots across the entire Hyrcanian forest between 2017 and 2019 with pan traps. Overall, we collected 71 species belonging to 22 families. Forest management resulted in decreasing abundance and species richness, as well as in an altered community composition. Chloromyia speciosa (Macquart, 1834), Sargus cuprarius (Linnaeus, 1758), Pherbellia jalili Mortelmans and Kazerani, 2020, Dolichocephala sp. and Bibio sp. were bioindicators for unmanaged plots. Indicator species suggest that changes in the biodiversity of saproxylic flies where primarily linked to the management-caused loss of old-growth attributes, such as large decaying logs and fruiting bodies of wood-inhabiting fungi. Endemic species as well as rare families of saproxylic flies illustrate the importance of conserving unmanaged parts in the Hyrcanian forest.
... Fungal fruiting bodies are discrete units from which insects can be collected or reared, and therefore insect communities associated with fungi are well known from these structures. The lack of beetles visiting or feeding on 82 out of 198 investigated polypore species in Finland indicates that some species are inferior as insect hosts (Schigel 2012). Whether this difference relates to toxicity, nutrient content or fungal structural characteristics are unknown. ...
Fungi can provide insects with nutrients and essential elements, detoxify plant defenses in recently dead wood, and protect or, in contrast, attack and digest insects. Insects can affect fungi through feeding or propagule dispersal. Fungal grazing may induce changes in fungal chemistry, morphology, and growth. Insect-fungus interactions in dead wood span a wide gradient of specificity from indirect interactions through shared habitats to obligate mutualisms. When based on insects reared from polypores, insect-fungi interaction networks may exhibit a degree of specialization similar to that of pollinators and plants , whereas when based on wood-decay fungi isolated from insects sampled at dead wood, the degree of specialization appears closer to animal-mediated seed dispersal. Exchange of dispersal and nutrition is the basis for most obligate insect-fungus mutualisms. Adaptations to these mutualisms seem to have evolved rapidly, and for some insects there has been a feedback between the evolution of fungus farming and sociality. Several recent studies indicate that insect-vectored dispersal might be an important complement to wind dispersal also for non-mutualistic saproxylic fungi, potentially providing targeted dispersal to suitable substrates. We propose a theoretical framework for the effectiveness of insect-vectored spore dispersal. Insect-fungus interactions are an essential component of forest ecosystems, influencing species richness, wood decay, and nutrient cycling. Several aspects of insect-fungus interactions are unknown and require further study, but availability and development of molecular methods may rapidly advance this field of research.
... These beetle species are also known to be connected with fungi. The Epuraea, Glischrochilus and Rhizophagus species typically visit sporulating polypores (Kaila et al., 1994;Hågvar and Økland, 1997;Hågvar, 1999;Nikitsky and Schigel, 2004;Krasutskii, 2007aKrasutskii, , 2010Schigel, 2011), E. coccineus is a fungivore of C. purpureum (Schigel, 2012), and X. laevigata lives in fungus-colonised wood (Dahlberg and Stokland, 2004). This explains the high prevalence of fungal DNA in samples of these species. ...
Most wood-inhabiting fungi are assumed to be dispersed primarily by wind, with the exception of a few species involved in mutualistic relationships with insects. In this study we tested whether several species of wood-inhabiting insects can function as dispersal vectors for non-mutualistic fungi, which would indicate that wood-inhabiting fungi can benefit from targeted animal-mediated dispersal. We sampled wood-inhabiting beetles (Coleoptera) from freshly felled wood experimentally added to forests and used DNA metabarcoding to investigate the fungal DNA carried by these insects. Staphylinid beetles rarely contained fungal DNA, while Endomychus coccineus, Glischrochilus hortensis and Glischrochilus quadripunctatus frequently carried fungal DNA with a composition specific to the insect taxon. A large proportion of the obtained fungal sequences (34%) represented decomposer fungi, including well-known wood-decay fungi such as Fomitopsis pinicola, Fomes fomentarius, Trichaptum abietinum and Trametes versicolor. Scanning electron microscopy further showed that some of the fungal material was carried as spores or yeast cells on the insect exoskeletons. Our results suggest that insect-vectored dispersal is of broader importance to wood-inhabiting fungi than previously assumed.
... Boddy and Jones, 2008;Jusino et al., 2016) as well as spore and fruit body predation by invertebrates (e.g. Boddy and Jones, 2008;Schigel, 2012). Microclimatic conditions affect sporulation (Nuss, 1975;Kramer, 1982), which could also play a role in the suitability of different microsites. ...
Life history traits are key to why species occur when and where they do and how their populations will respond to environmental changes. However, dispersal-related traits of fungi are generally poorly known. We studied how spore release height from the ground, an important determinant of airborne dispersal, is connected to other traits in polypores. We collected expert evaluations of fruit body growth sites for 140 species and found that experts generally provided consistent estimates of height above the ground. Height was correlated with other traits: species fruiting on living trees, earlier decay stages and deciduous hosts tend to fruit higher above the ground. While our data do not allow mechanistic explanations, our study demonstrates the potential of expert knowledge and identifies fruit body height above the ground as one consistent trait relevant to species’ life history strategies. We recommend a more comprehensive expert survey as one cost-efficient way towards a more trait-based fungal ecology.
... A gradient of trophic specialisation types is demonstrated by fungivorous beetles, from mono-and oligophagy to the most common polyphagy. At one extreme, Cis bilamellatus is an example of a very broad host range in northern Europe (Orledge et al. 2010); at another extreme of trophic specialisation some polypores "escape" by producing fruit bodies unpalatable for insect consumers (Schigel 2011a(Schigel , 2012a. ...
... Chemical signals, volatile compounds, play a key role in directing adult beetles to and from certain fungi in certain conditions or life stages. A large fraction of Finnish polypore species appeared never visited nor colonised by beetles; chemical repellents are the very likely reasons for the mycelial (Shaw 1992) and fruit body (Schigel 2012a) rejection. Chemical ecology offers a range of powerful spectrometry methods to solve the mechanisms of attraction and rejection. ...
An authorized PDF file may be used for research and teaching purposes, but posting on your homepage or deposit on repositories of third parties is not allowed. Please drop a msg if you need full text.
... A gradient of trophic specialisation types is demonstrated by fungivorous beetles, from mono-and oligophagy to the most common polyphagy. At one extreme, Cis bilamellatus is an example of a very broad host range in northern Europe (Orledge et al. 2010); at another extreme of trophic specialisation some polypores "escape" by producing fruit bodies unpalatable for insect consumers (Schigel 2011a(Schigel , 2012a. ...
... Chemical signals, volatile compounds, play a key role in directing adult beetles to and from certain fungi in certain conditions or life stages. A large fraction of Finnish polypore species appeared never visited nor colonised by beetles; chemical repellents are the very likely reasons for the mycelial (Shaw 1992) and fruit body (Schigel 2012a) rejection. Chemical ecology offers a range of powerful spectrometry methods to solve the mechanisms of attraction and rejection. ...
Larvae or adults of fungivorous Coleoptera selectively feed on a primarily fungal diet, fruit bodies, mycelia and spores. Evolutionary success and diversity of fungi and beetles make patterns of their co-occurrence and interactions among the most complex in terrestrial habitats. This chapter provides an illustration of this ecological complexity focusing on studies of fungus–beetle interactions from European boreal forests. Taxonomic, functional and life-form diversity of both fungi and beetles clashes in a number of interaction types, resulting in diverse species assemblage patterns and varying degrees of trophic specialisation of beetles.
... These beetle species are also known to be connected with fungi. The Epuraea, Glischrochilus and Rhizophagus species typically visit sporulating polypores (Kaila et al., 1994;Hågvar and Økland, 1997;Hågvar, 1999;Nikitsky and Schigel, 2004;Krasutskii, 2007aKrasutskii, , 2010Schigel, 2011), E. coccineus is a fungivore of C. purpureum (Schigel, 2012), and X. laevigata lives in fungus-colonised wood (Dahlberg and Stokland, 2004). This explains the high prevalence of fungal DNA in samples of these species. ...
