Ambrosiophilus Hulcr & Cognato, 2009

Smith, Sarah M., Beaver, Roger A. & Cognato, Anthony I., 2020, A monograph of the Xyleborini (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) of the Indochinese Peninsula (except Malaysia) and China, ZooKeys 983, pp. 1-442 : 1

Ambrosiophilus Hulcr & Cognato, 2009

Ambrosiophilus Hulcr & Cognato, 2009: 21.

Type species.

Xyleborus restrictus Schedl, 1939b; original designation.

Diagnosis.

1.95-4.5 mm, stout to elongate (2.27-2.92 × as long as wide) with elytral apex rounded and entire. Ambrosiophilus is distinguished by the pronotum anterior margin typically without a carina or serrations; pronotal disc punctate; declivity rounded and steep; antennal club flattened, types 3 or 4; scutellum flat, flush; mycangial tufts absent; protibiae obliquely triangular; and procoxae contiguous.

Ambrosiophilus most closely resembles Ambrosiodmus and is distinguished by the pronotal disc and lateral areas punctate, never asperate, and lateral profile of pronotal and elytral discs flat.

Similar genera.

Ambrosiodmus .

Distribution.

Found in temperate and tropical Asia, two species are established in the United States ( Gomez et al. 2018a).

Gallery system.

Similar to Ambrosiodmus (see above).

Remarks.

Ambrosiophilus atratus and A. subnepotulus are believed to use the same basidiomycete as Ambrosiodmus (see above) ( Kasson et al. 2016; Li et al. 2017). However, some species are mycocleptic ( Hulcr and Cognato 2010b). The female starts its gallery close to galleries of other ambrosia beetles. The fungus established by the ‘host’ species grows in the galleries of Ambrosiophilus which consequently has no need to transport its own ambrosia fungus, and lacks mycangia ( Hulcr and Cognato 2010b; Kasson et al. 2016).