ARTS: A corevision of the pinhole borers (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae) and symbiotic fungi (Raffaelea spp.) via multi-generational systematics training

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Pinhole borers are an understudied group of woodboring beetles that drill into trees and farm fungi for food. Some have become pests of trees, some are becoming invasive, and hundreds more are rare, unique, and entirely unknown to science. Given the ongoing disappearance of tropical forests, many pinhole borers may already be extinct. This project will summarize what is known about these beetles and their symbiotic fungi while generating new data about them using modern DNA sequencing and microscopy technologies. Because the lack of taxonomists working on pinhole borers and their symbiotic fungi is a biosecurity gap for the U.S – both the beetles and the fungi can become pests – this project will train graduate and undergraduate students as the next generation of entomologists and mycologists. Outreach goals include the broad dissemination of accurate information about wood borers through curating information on Wikipedia, and a specific campaign to encourage homeowners in the United States to retain dead wood on their properties as a refuge of biodiversity in urban landscapes. This project will undertake a simultaneous revision of two symbiont groups that are charismatic, important, and sometimes pestiferous, but suffer from the typical taxonomic impediments. The main goals of the project are to identify, classify and describe the pinhole borer beetles and their symbiotic fungi, in addition to documenting the many interactions between these two groups and the trees in which they live. Attaining these aims are enabled by phylogenetically analyzing DNA sequence data from thousands of individuals and collecting new morphological data using photographs and microscopy to identify beetle-fungus interactions. The vast datasets generated by this project will feed into many products which will be made for both humans and online aggregators, including an e-monograph of pinhole borers, taxonomic publications, photographs, and an AI-based identification tool. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.