The only surviving member of the apparently extinct family Micromalthidae is the Micromalthus debilis, a native of the eastern United States. They have a strange life cycle that includes “ghost adults” that aren’t functional and female larvae that reproduce asexually (parthenogenetically).
Morphology
The mature beetle is elongated, 1.5 to 2.5 mm (0.059 to 0.098 in) in length, colored from dark brown to blackish, and has legs and antennae that are brownish-yellow. Large eyes project from either side of the larger-than-thorax head.
Habitat
Telephone-pole beetle discovered in the eastern United States
Diet
The larvae of these wood-boring insects consume moist, rotting logs of oak and chestnut. Additionally, it has been claimed that they harm poles and structures (hence the name).
Life Cycle
Their Male adults hardly ever grow and devour their mothers from the inside. Significant temperatures cause the development of adults, but they also cause a high mortality of larvae. The average longevity of an adult female is six days, whereas the average lifespan of an adult male is just about 12 hours. Adults of both sexes are sterile, remaining vestiges of a time when sexual reproduction was an essential part of the life cycle. Its Wolbachia bacterial infection is probably related to the lack of sexual reproduction.
Heating was employed in an experiment to produce a sizable number of adults to replicate the adult life cycle, which is no longer functional. The sex roles in this species were reversed. Females preferred to mate with guys that came from other logs than the one they did, and they may have rejected males by performing a “dance” motion that involved shaking their abdomens and beating their wings. Additionally, females engaged in competition for male attention and started conversations with them by grabbing at their genitalia.
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