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Rhinotia brunnea
About 20mm in length, this was a dark brown narrow bodied weevil with a long curved rostrum. Antennae were straight. The front legs had thick femurs. The ribbed elytra had a spray of white spots along the inner margin. the abdomen was mostly white with dark markings.
Adults eat pollen and larvae eat wood or material off dying or diseased plants. Belid weevils are not pests on healthy plant. Belid Weevils are primitive weevils - Gondwanan. "The Belidae today have an essentially Gondwanan distribution, occurring only in the Australia–New Guinea–New Zealand region up to Southeast Asia, South and Central America (barely reaching North America), some Pacific islands (notably the Hawaiian Islands) and a few places in Africa." Source: Wikipedia
The antennae are straight in belid weevils and other primitive weevils because the first antennal segment (scape) is short, as opposed to the longer scapes of the "true weevils" from the family Curculionidae where the antennae are bent at the end of the scape.
Spotted on Mar 4, 2013
Submitted on Mar 6, 2013
3 Comments
Wow! How interesting!
Thanks, Gerardo. To me weevils were small and always eating grain and flour! - I was amazed to see the long snout. Also he is one of the primitive weevils. altogether an exciting spotting for me..
Fantastic I never seen one like this shape :)