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Abstract
This paper provides an account of the biology of Lissoderes (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Conoderinae) focusing on L. pusillus Hespenheide and L. subnudus Champion. The eggs, larvae, and pupae live inside the hollow stems of Cecropia saplings. Adult weevils chew through the stem and deposit eggs on the inner surface of the internode. The larvae feed on the parenchyma lining the hollow internodes and pupate inside the internode. Emerging adults chew their way out of the stem. Two hymenopteran parasitoids were reared from larvae and prepupae of L. pusillus: Neocatolaccus sp. (Pteromalidae) and Heterospilus sp. (Braconidae). Menozziola sp. (Diptera, Phoridae) and Conoaxima sp. (Hymenoptera, Eurytomidae) were observed parasitizing Azteca queens. Parasitism by these species may explain part of the high mortality observed in colonizing Azteca queens. Direct competition with L. pusillus and L. subnudus appears not to be a major cause of queen mortality, although possible indirect effects of the weevils remain unknown.
Acknowledgements
We thank Blake Hancock, Kenichi Okamoto, and Guro Saudal for helping with certain aspects of this project. We also thank Brian Brown for the identification of the phorid fly, Michael Gates for identifying Conoaxima affinis, Yens Prena for pointing out the reference to nemonychid larvae, Jack Longino for useful discussions, and Henry Hespenheide for comments on the manuscript. Finally, we are grateful to the staff of the “San Ramon” biological station at AMBBR, especially the multi‐talented Hugo Perez, and La Selva Biological Station, especially the crew at Proyecto ALAS (Danilo Brenes, Ronald Vargas, and Maylin Paniagua). Fieldwork by LaPierre was supported by fellowships from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA, and by personal funds.