{"id":56402,"date":"2025-07-23T13:30:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=56402"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:32:19","slug":"ambrosia-beetle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ambrosia-beetle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambrosia Beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Ambrosia Beetle Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rubber plantations in Kerala have been under threat since an ambrosia beetle-fungus alliance has been attacking trees, causing severe leaf fall and rapid drying.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Ambrosia Beetle<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ambrosia beetles get their name from the <\/span><b>ambrosia fungi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that call the beetle their home. The name \u2018ambrosia\u2019 is not taxonomic but ecological.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These beetles are <\/span><b>native to Central and South America.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were <\/span><b>first reported<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in India in the <\/span><b>cashew trees of Ponda, Goa, in 2012.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The beetle has been reported to share a <\/span><b>mutualistic relationship<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with two fungal species, <\/span><b>Fusarium ambrosia and Fusarium solani.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How it Affects Rubber Tree<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These beetles attack dead or infected trees, although they\u2019re also known to attack stressed trees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At times, the stressed trees release ethanol, a volatile compound that the ambrosia beetles can sense and attack.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The beetles don\u2019t feed on the woody bark of trees; the fungi do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The beetles bore tunnels called galleries in the bark, carry fungi into the galleries, and farm the fungi to concentrate nutrients.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The beetles and their larvae feed on <\/span><b>nutrient-rich fungal mycelia.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The fungi also release enzymes that weaken the wood, allowing beetles to penetrate deeper.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other insect hosts, the fungi are present in sacs called mycangia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The beetle-fungus association harms trees in many ways. Aside from weakening the structure, the duo causes severe leaf fall, trunk drying, and in some cases even tree death.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The infection also affects total <\/span><b>latex production from <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rubber-plantations-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">rubber trees<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, causing economic and agricultural losses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Prevention Techniques:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> To combat the infection, experts follow specific methods, such as using <\/span><b>antifungal agents<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>removing the infected part of trees, burning or chipping away<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> any part that displays holes, and preventive measures such as using traps for ambrosia beetles.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/a-beetle-fungi-combo-threatens-plantations-in-rubber-capital-kerala\/article69841157.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambrosia Beetles get their name from the ambrosia fungi that call the beetle their home. The name \u2018ambrosia\u2019 is not taxonomic but ecological. Read more about Ambrosia Beetle Fungus, Scientific Name, Family, Treatment, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":56430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1755,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-56402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ambrosia-beetle","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}