Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, Barcoding of Ambrosia Beetles and Wood-boring Lepidoptera Larva, 2021-2023

Ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) have been implicated in the spread of Ceratocystis fungi that cause rapid ‘ōhiʻa death (ROD), a deadly fungal disease threatening the keystone Hawaiian tree ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha). Research has investigated the role that ambrosia beetles play in the spread of the disease, including studies within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (HVNP). We collected ambrosia beetles in HVNP and used genetic tools to confirm the morphological taxonomic identification of native and non-native ambrosia beetles. Additionally, we sampled an area in which native ʻōlapa (Cheirodendron tryginum) trees were dying in ʻŌlaʻa Forest to gather taxonomic information on the insect species present. Ambrosia beetles and unknown lepidoptera larva were chiseled from dead and dying trees and we captured ambrosia beetles in panel traps. A subset of individuals (n = 15) were barcoded using Sanger sequencing of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI). Some specimen sequences had matches in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GenBank sequence database when using the query feature, while others did not. For specimens whose sequences did not appear in GenBank queries, we submitted sequence data as a new species entry.