Cymatodera undulata (Say, 1825)

Chapman, Eric G., Leavengood, John M. & Dupuis, Julian R., 2025, The Cleridae and Thanerocleridae of eastern North America, with illustrated keys, updated distributions, and special emphasis on the Kentucky fauna, Zootaxa 5639 (1), pp. 1-88 : 36-37

Cymatodera undulata (Say, 1825) ; Cleridae : Tillinae (no tribal assignment)

Illustrations: Plate 1-M. Key to clerid genera, couplet 22-D, couplet 24-B; Cymatodera key, couplet 1-A, couplet

2-B, couplet 5-A, B, couplet 6-A

Distribution: AZ to FL to NY and southern ON to SD.

- Recorded from: AL, AR, AZ, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, and Ontario ( Burke et al. 2015).

Kentucky counties (Map 6): Caldwell (1), Fayette (9), Hart (1), Letcher (1), McCracken (1), Oldham (1), Shelby

(1). Kentucky specimens were widely scattered across the state.

Years: 1894 (1), 1936 (1), 1956 (1), 1957 (1), 1970 (6), 1974 (2), 1976 (1), 2001 (1), 2013 (1)

Months: May (2), July (4), August (2), September (4), October (2), December (1)

Collections (15): BugGuide (1), OSUC (1), UKIC (13)

Collection methods: Malaise trap (2), reared (4), sugarbait (1)

Natural History: This species has been reared from (1) chestnut infested with “ Callidium aereum ” ( Phymatodes aereus (Newman)) , (2) eucnemid infested maples, (3) Oberea ( Cerambycidae ) infested eastern cottonwood ( Populus deltoides ), (4) Elaphidion ( Cerambycidae ) infested oak, and (5) American bittersweet ( Celastrus scandens ) birch ( Betula ), butternut ( Juglans cinerea ), hackberry ( Celtis or Prunus ?), sumac ( Rhus ), Virginia creeper ( Ampelopsis quinquefolia ) and wild grape ( Vitis vinifera ) whose borer infestations were not noted ( Bøving & Champlain 1920). Also reared from stems of Spanish needles ( Bidens bipinnata ), infestation not noted ( Wolcott 1921). A larva was reared from a bur oak ( Quercus macrocarpa ) gall of Disholcaspis mamma (now D. quercusmamma (Walsh & Riley)) by Balduf (1926) who found it tunneling in the pithy, woody peripheral portion of the gall where the parasitic wasp larvae tend to burrow. Over a 33-day period, the larva fed on most of the 102 chalcidoid larvae and pupae offered to it before pupation ( Balduf 1926). The adult from this rearing consumed 19 adult phytophagous beetles, flies, and true bugs. Larvae have also been found in pin oak stem galls of Callirhytus quercuscornigera (Osten Sacken) by Eliason & Potter (2000) who noted that it was unclear which of the many species of insects occupying these galls were being preyed upon. Dorshorst & Young (2008) collected it with flight intercept, Lindgren funnel, and Malaise traps.

Comments: Literature records of this species from Arizona are considered questionable. Note: Burke & Zolnerowich (2014) discovered that females of C. undulata and C. wolcotti cannot be reliably separated. Therefore, specimens of these two species that were identified prior to this 2014 paper and distributions and feeding habits derived from them should be considered tentative.