What is the life cycle of the redbay ambrosia beetle?
The life cycle of an ambrosia beetle includes four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. After boring into a tree, adult ambrosia beetles create tunnels (galleries) in the wood. They inoculate those tunnels with fungal spores that are carried on their bodies, and cultivate this fungus as food. Females lay eggs in the galleries; these eggs hatch into larvae that feed on the fungus, eventually pupate, and change to the adult form. The cycle from egg to adult is called a generation. The redbay ambrosia beetle probably has multiple generations per year, with the length of each generation varying with season and temperature. Only the female beetles fly and initiate attacks on new host trees. Unmated females lay eggs that hatch as males, with whom the parent female can mate. Mated females lay eggs that hatch as females, which in turn can mate with their sibling males. Thus only one female beetle is needed to establish a new local population of the insect. See also the Insect Vector page.
