Associations of Beetles with Slime Molds: Ecological Patterns in the Anisotomini (Leiodidae)

The associations between slime molds (Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa) and beetles are poorly understood, but recent contributions indicate that the insectfauna, and especially the beetle fauna, feeding and breeding in Slime molds is larger and more diverse than previously estimated.

Abstract

The associations between slime molds (Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa) and beetles are poorly understood. Recent contributions indicate that the insect fauna, and especially the beetle fauna, feeding and breeding in slime molds is larger and more diverse than previously estimated. Slime mold predation, not including fortuitous feeding by general scavengers, has evolved in the Coleoptera at least half a dozen times and possibly some multiple of that number. Species of Staphylinoidea (Staphylinidae, Leiodidae, Scaphidiidae [Newton 1984]), Eucinetoidea (Eucinetidae, Clambidae [Wheeler and Hoebeke 1984]), Cucujoidea (Sphindidae, lathridiidae [Lawrence and Newton 1980]), and possibly Adephaga (Rhysodidae [Wheeler 1984]) and other taxa have been associated with Myxomycetes. While many represent associations of only one or a few species, in a few instances higher taxa appear to be associated as wholes with slime molds. The family Sphindidae, genus Enicmus (Lathridiidae), and tribes Anisotomini and Neopelatopini (of Leiodidae) are among these. In a broader context, there are mites, Collembola, and Diptera that are predaceous on Myxomycetes.