Ancient-coevolution
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Pharaxonotha
Pharaxonotha is a genus of pleasing fungus beetles in the family Erotylidae, established by Reitter in 1875. Most species are obligate symbionts of New World cycads, living and breeding within male pollen cones where they consume pollen and cone tissues, and serving as specialized pollinators by transferring pollen to female cones. The genus exhibits a remarkable coevolutionary relationship with cycads dating back approximately 200 million years to the early Jurassic. One species, P. kirschii, is an exception, inhabiting forest floor litter and stored foods rather than cycad cones. The beetles possess infrared receptors on their antennae that enable them to detect thermogenic cones of their host plants.