Data from: Factors affecting the structure of Coleoptera assemblages on bracket fungi (Basidiomycota) in a Brazilian forest.

Insect-fungal interactions are an important but understudied aspect of tropical forest ecology. Here we present the first large scale study on communities of insects feeding on reproductive structures of the macrofungi (basidiomes) in the neotropics. This trophic interaction is not well characterized in most ecosystems, although it is expected that the consumption of basidiomes by beetles may be affected by factors related to fungi in ways analogous to plant-herbivore interactions. We investigated how the composition of beetle assemblages varies as a function of fungal taxonomic distance, basidiome consistency and hyphal systems. Three hundred and seventy-six basidiomes representing Polyporales and Hymenochaetales were collected in an Araucaria angustifolia forest region in southern Brazil. Basidiomes were maintained individually in laboratory in plastic containers for up to three months to allow beetles to develop until adulthood, at which point they were collected. Two hundred and seven specimens representing 40 species were associated with beetles. Four hundred and forty-seven Coleoptera occurrences were recorded, representing 90 morphospecies from 20 families. We found that assemblages of fungivorous Coleoptera were more similar among more closely related fungi. Our results also show that beetle assemblages vary as a function of toughness, represented by different consistency classes and the structure of the hyphal system that provide physical structure to the basidiomes. In these ways the associations between beetles and basidiomes resembles that characterized previously in temperate zone, suggesting continuity in the structure of such associations across a wide latitudinal range.