Data from: Synergistic Effects of Acetic Acid and Ethanol on Offspring Production and Gallery Expansion by Fungus-Farming Ambrosia Beetles

Continuous, non-normal data (e.g., amount of ejected frass, gallery volume, fungal growth, and metabolite concentrations) and discrete, non-normal count data (e.g., eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults). Wood-boring ambrosia beetles and their offspring obligately depend on cultivated fungi that they maintain within host trees. Stressed trees produce at least two potent antimicrobials, ethanol and acetic acid, which typically suppress the growth of most fungi. Ethanol facilitates the growth of ambrosia beetles’ fungal mutualists and thus aids in host colonization; however, acetic acid’s effects are unknown. Here, we evaluated the effects of acetic acid on tunneling and offspring production by two exotic ambrosia beetle species, Xylosandrus germanus and Anisandrus maiche. Cut wood stems (i.e., bolts) were infused with water alone, 5% ethanol, or mixtures of 5% ethanol with acetic acid at various dilutions. The treated bolts were infested with X. germanus and A. Maiche, and the amount of ejected frass and offspring were measured. Infestations by X. germanus and A. maiche resulted in more frass, larvae, pupae, and adults in the combined 5% ethanol-acetic acid treatment, than in the 5% ethanol alone or water control treatments. X-ray micro-computed tomography revealed that bolts infused with this 5% ethanol-acetic acid mixture had larger insect gallery volumes than those with only 5% ethanol, which in turn were larger than the water control. A positive relationship was found between frass ejected by each beetle and gallery volume across all experiments.We also measured the relative abundance of A. grosmanniae, the fungal mutualist of X. germanus, using qPCR from galleries formed bolts infused with water, 5% ethanol alone, and 0.1%, 1%, 5%, and 10% acetic acid alone. The relative amount of A. grosmanniae was higher in bolts infused with 5% and 10% acetic acid than all other treatments, except for 5% ethanol. The relative amount of A. grosmanniae was also higher in bolts infused with 5% ethanol than in those infused with 0.1 % acetic acid and the water control. An agar plate bioassay also examined the effect of acetic acid on A. grosmanniae. The dry weight of A. grosmanniae was higher when grown on media with 0.005% (v/v) acetic acid compared to those with 0.0005% acetic acid and the water control. Additionally, the dry weight of A. grosmanniae was higher when grown on media with 0.0005% than the water control.Lastly, we determined the concentration of acetic acid in a mixture of cambium, sapwood, and heartwood tissue samples from flood-stressed C. florida trees to that of bolts infused with a mixture of 5% ethanol plus 5% acetic acid. The ethanol concentration in stem tissue samples from flood-stressed C. florida was not different from that detected in bolts infused with 5% ethanol alone or in a mixture of 5% ethanol plus 0.1%, 1%, 5%, and 10% acetic acid. Acetic acid and ethanol were not detected in the stems of non-flooded C. florida trees, nor in the water-infused bolts.

[
  "005:18",
  "005:20"
]

{
  "fn": "Ranger, Christopher",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:christopher.ranger@usda.gov"
}

[
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Compiled dataset.xlsx",
    "format": "xlsx",
    "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet",
    "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/65443245"
  }
]

[
  "Ambrosia beetles",
  "Ambrosiella grosmanniae",
  "Anisandrus maiche"
]

[
  "005:040"
]

{
  "name": "Agricultural Research Service",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}

[
  {
    "@type": "PeriodOfTime",
    "endDate": "2040-02-29",
    "startDate": "2026-02-27"
  }
]