Ambrosia beetle
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Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae, which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead or stressed trees into
Gallery of Xylosandrus crassiusculus split open, with pupae and black fungus
Dinoplatypus chevrolati from Papua New Guinea, an example of Platypodinae, another species-rich group of ambrosia beetles
Eusociality
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Eusociality is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division
Ambrosia beetle
…unlike most phytophagous organisms including the closely related bark beetles. One species of ambrosia beetle, Austroplatypus incompertus exhibits eusociality, one of the few organisms outside of Hymenoptera and Isoptera to do so. Until recently ambrosia beetles have been placed in independent families…
Co-operative brood rearing, seen here in honeybees, is a condition of eusociality.
Suzanne Batra introduced the term "eusocial" after studying nesting in Halictid bees including Halictus latisignatus, pictured.
Weaver ants, here collaborating to pull nest leaves together, can be considered eusocial, as they have a permanent division of labor.
Swarming Iridomyrmex purpureus ants. The young queens are black, winged, and much larger than the wingless workers.