Leaf beetles are ant-nest beetles: the curious life of the juvenile stages of case-bearers (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae)

AGRAIN FEDERICO; BUFFINGTON ML; CHABOO CS; CHAMORRO ML; SCHÖLLER M

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PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

Lugar: SOFIA; Año: 2015 vol. 547 p. 133 - 164

1313-2989

Although some species of Cryptocephalinae (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae) have been documented with ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) foralmost 200 years, information on this association is fragmentary. This contributionsynthesizes extant literature and analysizes the data for biological patterns.Myrmecophily is more common in the tribe Clytrini than in Cryptocephalini, butnot documented for Fulcidacini or the closely-related Lamprosomatinae.Myrmecophilous cryptocephalines (34 species in 14 genera) primarily live amongformicine and myrmecines ants as hosts. These two ant lineages are putativesister-groups, with their root-node dated to between 77?90 mya. In the NewWorld tropics, the relatively recent radiation of ants from moist forests tomore xeric ecosystems might have propelled the association of cryptocephalines andant nests. Literature records suggest that the defensive behavioral profile orchemical profile (or both) of these ants has been exploited bycryptocephalines. Another pattern appears to be that specialized natural enemies,especially parasitoid Hymenoptera, exploit cryptocephaline beetles inside theant nests. With the extant data at hand, based on the minimum age of a fossillarva dated to 45 mya, we can infer that the origin of cryptocephalinemyrmecophily could have arisen within the Upper Cretaceous or later. It remainsunknown how many times myrmecophily has appeared, or how old is the behavior.This uncertainty is compounded by incongruent hypotheses about the origins ofChrysomelidae and angiosperm-associated lineages of cryptocephalines. Livingwith ants offers multiple advantages that might have aided the coloni- zationof xeric environments by some cryptocephaline species.