摘要：The European bark beetle Orthotomicus erosus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is an introduced pine-infesting pest inSouth Africa. 1 It typically infests stressed or dying trees and introduces blue stain fungi that invade the sapwoodand depreciate the timber value. 1,2 The blue stain fungus Ophiostoma ips (Ascomycota: Ophiostomatales) is thedominant associate of O. erosus in South Africa, but several other related fungi co-occur with this species inthe beetle galleries. 3 Although O. ips consistently co-occurs with O. erosus at varying frequencies 3,4 , it is nota serious pathogen to living pine trees 5 and its role as symbiont remains uncertain, as is the case with mostophiostomatoid fungi associated with conifer-infesting bark beetles 6 . Although the fresh bark beetle galleriesrepresent an environment rich in nutrients and other growth substrates, it is remarkable that this niche is seldomovergrown with common mould fungi.
