Aradus betulae

Description

Aradus betulae is a species of insect. It was first described by Linnaeus in 1758. Aradus betulae belongs to the genus Aradus, and family Aradidae. Aradus is a genus of true bugs in the family Aradidae, the flat bugs. It is distributed worldwide, mainly in the Holarctic. There are around 200 or more species in the genus. Most Aradus feed on fungi, often in dead trees. Some species are pyrophilous, associating with burned habitat such as forests after wildfires. They feed on the particular fungi that grow on burnt wood. Examples include A. laeviusculus, which eats fungi growing on burned conifers, and Aradus gracilis, which occurs in large numbers on burned South Florida slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa).