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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Snout and Bark Beetles (Curculionoidea) » Snout and Bark Beetles (Curculionidae) » Bark and Ambrosia Beetles (Scolytinae)
Photo#252961
Bark Burrows
Copyright © 2009 Sam Houston

Bark Burrows
Sand Springs, Osage County, Oklahoma, USA
February 10, 2009
Size: 51mm (2") long
Found behind pine tree bark.
Note the initial entry hole at the top then the subsequent burrows below.
What might do this? Hibernating Chalcid wasps?

Please help with ID.

Images of this individual: tag all
Bark Burrows Bark Burrows
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Contributed by Sam Houston on 11 February, 2009 - 12:55pm
Last updated 4 April, 2009 - 5:43pm

Cool!
I think this is a bark beetle (Scolytinae) gallery, but the cocoons are likely those of euphorine braconids, which parasitize bark beetles. Chalcids neither bore in wood nor spin cocoons (well, there are a very few that spin real flimsy ones, but these aren't those). Nice shot, and nice find!

I'm assuming the diameter of the burrows is on the order of 1-2 mm wide--I can't quite make the translation (from 51 mm long) in my brain at the moment.
… Charley Eiseman, 11 February, 2009 - 3:14pm login or register to post comments

 
....
I'd say they were between 2 and 3 mm wide. I can go measure it when I get home later if you want.
… Sam Houston, 11 February, 2009 - 3:25pm login or register to post comments

 
That's okay,
2-3 mm seems right if the whole thing was 51 mm. I can't think of anything else offhand that would make branching galleries under bark with multiple larvae coming from a common channel, so I'm sticking with Scolytinae for now. I'll let you know if something else occurs to me--or maybe a beetle person will chime in.
… Charley Eiseman, 11 February, 2009 - 3:32pm login or register to post comments

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