Insects associated with Eucalypts sightings

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Overview

This collection project is for sightings of insects associated with Eucalypts.

The groups are: sap-sucking feeders, leaf-chewing feeders, wood eaters, seed harvesters, and pollinators.

Often there are signs of insect herbivory or damage to Eucalypts. In these cases it is worth uploading a sighting of the Eucalypt and the damage to the Eucalypt health surveillance collection project https://canberra.naturemapr.org/collections/sightings/10933

Sap-sucking feeders

These include psyllids (with or without lerps), coccid bugs, leafhoppers, cicadas, and shieldbugs. Cicadas are sap-sucking both as adults on foliage, and as nymphs on roots.

The Eucalypt psyllids are numerous and diverse. At least 64% of Australian pysllid species occur on Eucalypts. Dieback of Eucalypts can occur when pysllid numbers become excessive, and this can happen when Bell Miners encouage pysllid spread by chasing away other pysllid eating birds.

Leaf-chewing feeders

These include leaf beetles such as Christmas beetles and other scarab beetles, stick insects, leaf-miners, pyralid moth lavae, snout moth larvae, cutworms, leafrollers, Anthelid larvae, and sawflies.

Swarms of scarab beetles and stick insects can cause severve canopy defoliation in Eucalypts and even dieback.

Wood-eaters

These include termites, borers, and scribbly gum moth larvae.

Some termites eat sapwood but most eat heartwood, logs, or decayed wood. Along with fungi they are important in hollow formation for hollow dependent wildlife.

Examples of borers are Longicorn beetle and scarab beetle larvae. Longicorn beetle larvae can cause dieback in drought stressed Eucalypts.

Scibbly gum moth larvae burrow through newly formed bark, under old bark, leaving the distinctive zig-zag marks, once the old bark sheds. This occurs not only on scribbly gums, but also in other Eucalypts in the 'ash' group, and also in some of the 'peppermint' group. Examples are alpine ash, white ash, snow gums, river peppermint and Sydney peppermint.

Seed harvestors

Ants are the main seed harvestors, and the abundant 'cheap' seed produced by Eucalypts means that a lot of seed can be incorporated or cached into nests.

Pollinators

Eucalypt flower shape means that a wide range of insects can access nectar, and the ring of stamens means that many insects are also pollinators of Eucalypts. Pollinators include: scarab beetles, jewel beetles, soldier beetles, thinnid wasps, noctuid moths, European honey bees, native bees (e.g., Hylaeus), butterflies and moths, tachinid flies, and hover flies.

Small species of insects, i.e. less than 3mm, are probably nectar 'robbers' or 'thieves' because there would not be contact with the stigma.

How to contribute

Sightings can be added to this collection by clicking on the the star icon at the top right of the sighting page and then select 'Insects associated with Eucalypts' from the collection list.

Add a sighting