Abstract: The biology and fungal hosts of the Australian fungus beetle Episcaphula australis (Boisduval) (Coleoptera: Erotylidae) are reviewed from the literature and previously unpublished observations of the author.The primary fungal host in coastal eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales is the red bracket fungus Polystictus cinnabarinus (Jacq. ex Fries) Cooke (Basidiomycetes: Polyporaceae) which grows on the dead wood of species of Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae), Xanthorrhoea (Xanthorrhoeaceae) and Acacia (Mimosaceae). Adults also feed less commonly on other bracket fungi (i.e. possibly a Poria sp., Polyporaceae) as well as hyphae of unidentified fungi growing in moist or wet soil and leaf litter. Adults in the laboratory lived for 40 -102 days (mean = 81,8 ± 22,5 days).The only other Australian beetle known to feed an P. cinnabarinus is Cis victoriensis Blackburn (Ciidae) but both beetle species have not as yet been collected from the same fruiting body of P. cinnabarinus.

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