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Beetles grow weed killer

Female beetles protect food for their offspring with a bacterial compound new to science

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Southern pine beetles get by with a little help from their friends, including a newly discovered bacterium that makes a weed killer.

LARVA AND FUNGUS A cutaway of a southern pine beetle’s tunnel, shown under a scanning electron microscope, reveals a stubby larva (facing right) and a mat of fungal baby food (tangle at left) blending into a network of filamentous bacteria (just above the larva).