ambrosia beetle

plural ambrosia beetles

1. Any of those species of true weevils (family Curculionidae) that live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi, including almost all of the species of the subfamily Platypodinae and some of the species of bark beetles in Scolytinae.

   1 more example

   There are also parallels and interesting contrasts between mycophagous bark beetles and ambrosia beetles in the way they carry their fungal symbionts, the range of fungi that have been exploited by the beetles, and the morphological adaptations that some of the fungi have made to maintain the symbioses.

   2005, Fernando E. Vega, Insect-Fungal Associations: Ecology and Evolution, page 258

   Synonyms: platypodine