Woodturning -
Classic Art in Woodturned Bowls

Note:
Ambrosia Maple (ghost maple) is so named because of damage caused to the wood by fungi introduced into the tree by the Ambrosia Beetle. The fungi follow the vessels in the wood causing the streaking, which results in a beautiful contrast to the creamy color of the maple. The Beetle tunnels have "eyes" that give a ghostly accent to the streaking - hence the name "Ghost" Maple (also called Wormy Maple).

From Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 (Thomas E. Snyder): "Adult ambrosia beetles - so-called because they require green or moist wood within which they raise fungi for food - rapidly penetrate green logs and lumber. The males may assist the females in forming new colonies, and the fungus is raised for the young to eat. They have the beginning of a social life, but do not develop different forms or castes as do the true social insects, the termites, ants, and bees. The holes, not more than one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, are made by the adult beetles. They riddle the wood, and near them the wood is stained black. Serious losses to tight cooperage or barrel stock and balsa wood for marine life rafts and a lowering in grade of valuable lumber for veneer to be used in houses, boats, or airplanes result from their boring and staining."