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1 June 2013 Late Pleistocene Coleopteran Galleries in Wood from the La Brea Tar Pits: Colonization of Juniper by Phloeosinus Chapuis (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and Buprestidae
Anna R. Holden, John M. Harris
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Abstract

A Late Pleistocene twig, LACMP23-3464, of Juniperus L. from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, displays identifiable coleopteran trace fossils of both Phloeosinus Chapuis (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and Buprestidae. These subcortical engravings are an unusual association of two identifiable tracemakers on wood that can be identified to genus. These insect galleries resemble colonization by extant scolytines and buprestids on trees weakened by environmental stresses such as drought, fire, intense vegetational competition, or changes in the water table. It seems likely that a similar form of environmental stress also weakened the Juniperus tree from which the specimen originated. A rib of Camelops hesternus Leidy from the same asphaltic layer in this deposit has been dated at 42,600 radiocarbon years BP, providing a provisional date for the juniper twig. This twig represents a valuable contribution to the scarce fossil record of insect damage to wood in that it is the first record of Phloeosinus fossil galleries in juniper, and the first record of Buprestidae galleries from the Pleistocene epoch.

Anna R. Holden and John M. Harris "Late Pleistocene Coleopteran Galleries in Wood from the La Brea Tar Pits: Colonization of Juniper by Phloeosinus Chapuis (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and Buprestidae," The Coleopterists Bulletin 67(2), 155-160, (1 June 2013). https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065X-67.2.155
Received: 20 January 2013; Accepted: 10 April 2013; Published: 1 June 2013
KEYWORDS
bark beetle
excavation
North America
Paleoecology
trace fossil
wood-boring beetle
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