Construction of the Egg Chamber and Protection of the Eggs by Female Oxyporus japonicus SHARP (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Oxyporinae)

A survey of Oxyporus japonicus SHARP (Staphylinidae, Oxyporinae) breeding on fruiting bodies of Lampteromyces japonicus (KAWAM.) SING. (Agaricales, Tricholomataceae) was carried out in October 1993 in Asyu, Kyoto, Japan. The female O. japonicus constructed the egg chamber within the stem of the young fruiting body and covered her eggs within egg chamber with the fungal frass after oviposition. The female O. japonicus then remained within her egg chamber after oviposition and repelled conspecific female adults and possibly also other predacious beetles before and during hatching of the eggs. Thus this species is regarded as subsocial.