This live oak twig is 5/16" in diameter. The holes, before I whittled them away, were even smaller (see below). I'm not sure, but I suspect the debris inside the gallery might be dried up ambrosia.I found a cool scavenger that I've been unable to identify, and also a roving mite with a spider tattoo on its back (Neoseiulus spp.?).
The holes before I opened the door.
I also have a video and a second video of this scavenger.
Here's the mite with the spider tattoo that was also in the gallery.
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1 comment:
Joe Pase, Entomologist with the Texas Forest Service, says: "The small holes in the oak twig may be from an oak bark beetle – Pityophthorus or Pseudopityophthorus. They are very tiny beetles that infest recently dead and dying material and feed in the pith and other parts of the twigs. It would be pretty confident to say there were not ambrosia beetles in the twigs. You are probably seeing frass from the beetles."
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