Notes on Cerambycidae Co-Inhabiting Girdles of Oncideres pustulata Leconte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Abstract

Nineteen species of cerambycid beetles found co-inhabiting Tepehuaje (Leucaena pulverulenta, Fabaceae) girdled by adult Oncideres pustulata LeConte at the Sabal Palm Grove Sanctuary, Cameron County, Texas, USA, are listed and their habits briefly discussed. Literature concerning cohabitation of 0. pustulata girdles by other longhorned beetles is reviewed. Charac- ters for separating larvae of 0. pustulata and the closely-related Lochmaeocles c. cornuticeps (Schaeffer) are enumerated. Other insects associated with 0. pustulata-girdled Tepehuaje include 14 species in the beetle families Buprestidae, Curculionidae, Bostrichidae, Tenebrionidae, Mordel- lidae, Trogositidae, Cleridae; and the Tineidae (Lepidoptera). The cerambycid beetle Oncideres pustulata LeConte, commonly referred to as the Girdler, is distributed widely in southern Texas and northern Mexico, where it breeds in a variety of leguminous (= Fam. Fabaceae) trees and shrubs. Adults create suitable larval habitat by girdling the trunks of sapling-size trees or the distal portions of branches of larger hosts. Such girdling can be quite destructive, and 0. pustulata occasionally has been considered a pest of some economic significance. Bionomical information has been presented by High (1915) (as 0. putator Thomson), Linsley and Martin (1933), and Vogt (1949). Dead and dying Oncideres-pruned branches provide an equally suitable habitat for other phytophagous insects, and numerous opportunistic species of cerambycids have been recorded as utilizing these girdles. Craighead (1923) described the larvae of Geropa concolor (LeConte) (as Achryson con- color) and Neocompsa mexicana (Thomson) (as Ibidion townsendi Linell) from 0. pustulata-girdled Huisache (Acacia farnesiana (L.) Willd.). These two beetles and four others, Neocompsa exclamationis (Thomson), Obrium maculatum (Olivier), Neoclytus acuminatus (presumably subspecies hesperus Linsley,) and Anelaphus sp., probably debilis (LeConte) (as Anoplium trun- catum LeConte), were reared from girdles of Huisache and Ebony (Pithecel- lobium flexicaule (Benth.)) by Linsley and Martin (1933). Six additional spe- cies later were recorded from several genera of legumes by Linsley (1940): Placosternus difficilis (Chevrolat), Euderces (reichei) exilis Casey, Ecyrus arcuatus (Gahan) (as E. texanus Schaeffer), Sternidius wiltii (Horn), Sterni- dius mimeticus (Casey) (as Leiopus houstoni Casey), and Sternidius texanus (Casey) (as Leiopus texanus). (Dillon (1956) placed texanus as a synonym of mimeticus; the type of texanus is, however, quite distinct from that of mime- ticus. Further study may show texanus to be a synonym of either S. naevii- cornis (Bates), from Mexico, or the widespread S. alpha misellus (LeConte)). Vogt (1949) increased the number of associated species to 16 with the addi- tion of Stenosphenus lugens LeConte, Lissonotus flavocinctus puncticollis Bates, Thryallis undatus Chevrolat and Lochmaeocles c. cornuticeps