Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

A large number of insects are associated with polypores. They can be monophagous, polyphagous and use several fungal hosts, or be parasites on the insects utilize the fungus. The insect assemblage for some polypores is well investigated but there is still a lack of knowledge for many species. The aim with this study was to bring further knowledge of the insect fauna associated with the widespread, resupinate polypore species Amyloporia sinuosa, A. xantha and Neoantrodia serialis. Another aim is to investigate how the spatial distribution of dead wood impact the occurrence of the species. The distribution of dead wood has earlier been shown to be an important factor for some saproxylic insects.
A total of 101 conifer log samples (A. sinuosa (n=36), A. xantha (n=14), N. serialis (n=51) were collected in Uppland, Sweden for rearing. At each sampling site the volume of dead wood was noted in three different scales (10, 30 and 50 m). From the end of April to middle of September 2022 in
total 2510 insect individuals emerged belonging to more than 116 species (Nematocera and most Hymenoptera species were not identified). The two Amyloporia polypores shared many insect species, with Peltis ferruginea, Cixidia lapponica and C. confinis as the most frequent. The insect community of N. serialis was very different from that of Amyloporia, with Montescardia tessulatella and Cis dentatus as the most frequent insects. The difference in species assemblage is likely explained by the distant phylogenetic relationship between the polypore genera.
Two unexpected findings were the Tineidae moths Nemapogon fungivorellus (9 individuals in 3 N. serialis samples) and Agnathosia sandoeensis (2 individuals in an A. xantha sample). N. fungivorellus is not previously known for that host and A. sandoeensis was found in mainland Sweden for the first time and was previously only known from three locations in the world. The impact of dead wood volume was not clearly visible, with a possible exception for the Ptinidae beetle Stagetus borealis. A likely explanation for this result is a small sampling size and the few occurrences of many species.