ABSTRACT
Some beetles can attack the wood immediately after the tree is felled, but there are those that start their attack at different stages of wood degradation. Beetles of the family Passalidae belong to this latest category. The objective of this study was to assess the occurrence of beetles of this family in wood samples taken from trunks of Scleronema micranthum, a forest species from Central Amazon. The samples were exposed to biodegradation for 24 months on the forest ground of the Experimental Station of Tropical Silviculture of the National Institute for Amazonian Research, in Manaus, Amazon State, Brazil. During that period, 15 samples were removed from the experiment, every two months, for insect collection and evaluation of infestation. The presence of six species was recorded, all of them of the Passalini tribe: Passalus (Pertinax) latifrons, P. (Passalus) variiphyllus, P. (Pertinax) convexus, P. (Passalus) interstitialis, P. (Passalus) lanei, and Paxillus leachi. Among these species, P. (Passalus) interstitialis was the most abundant, with 18 individuals. This species was the first one to infest the samples and was found between the eighth and twentieth month of the experiment. The infestation occurred predominantly in the bark and sapwood.
KEYWORDS:
Amazon wood; beetle; Passalidae; degradation