Platypodidae

A single species in Britain, Platypus cylindrus (Fabricius). This is one of the few British members of the ambrosia beetles, so named because they introduce ambrosia fungi to the tree, cultivating fungal gardens which are the beetle’s sole source of nutrition (they are wood borers but not wood feeders).  An elongate, somewhat oblong species, 6-8mm long, it was a rarity in Britain until the Great Storm of 1987, when the large amount of extra dead oak that became available to the beetle saw it become abundant.