#picipes

Minute 2mm long beetles carving out neatly spaced holes in a Picipes bracket fungus.

Some of them were wandering across to visit the neighbours. According to Andras Szito at DPIRD, there were two species at work here. He was quite pleased to receive the specimen, as they didn't have any Ciids in the DPIRD collection.

Ciids are most diverse in the tropics and subtropics, and eat Polyporaceae or more rarely Corticiaceae bracket fungi. A few are commercial pests.

Maybe the Bay Polypore P. badius, although there seems to be some argument about whether we get that species in the Southern Hemisphere or not

The Bay Polypore was formerly known as Royoporus badius, and as the black-footed polypore or black-leg because of the colour of the stipe. In the Northern Hemisphere range - Asia, Europe and North America - it grows on the standing or fallen trunks and branches of various hardwood genera.

Picipes sp.