Melittomma sericeum (Harris, 1841)

Traylor, Clayton R., Ulyshen, Michael D., Cornish, J. Winston, Tigreros, Gabriel & McHugh, Joseph V., 2025, Progress toward a list of saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera) in the southeastern USA, ZooKeys 1232, pp. 1-95 : 1-95

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1232.143989
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E7F3DF85-80E1-41FB-8DB4-25E9460FCC9F
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15027696
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/12CF333A-3342-5F13-91BF-D3730EF51E94
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft (2025-03-14 18:24:11, last updated 2025-03-16 00:34:09)
scientific name	Melittomma sericeum (Harris, 1841)
status

Treatment

Collection information.

USA: Georgia (new state record *): Clarke Co.: four individuals from three sites. Caught in flight trap from 16 June – 27 July 2020.

Distribution.

Eastern North America.

Saproxylic habits.

Larvae bore through wounded wood, broken branches, dying trees, stumps, and freshly cut logs of oak, primarily white oak ( Solomon 1995); adult females transport a symbiotic ambrosial fungus to new hosts with mycangia near their ovipositor, and this fungus grows on the walls of larval tunnels ( Young 2002 a); historically, M. Sericeum preferred American chestnut ( Hopkins 1893).

References

Young DK (2002 a) Lymexylidae Fleming 1821. In: Arnett RH, Thomas MC, Skelley PE, Frank JH (Eds) American Beetles. Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 261–262. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420041231.ch4

Hopkins AD (1893) Catalogue of West Virginia forest and shade tree insects. West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletins 32: 171–251. https://doi.org/10.33915/agnic.32

Solomon JD (1995) Guide to insect borers of North American broadleaf trees and shrubs. Agricultural Handbook 706. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington D. C., 735 pp. https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/22150