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Otiorhynchus sulcatus
Black punctate weevil with a dispersed pattern of brown made from scales on the elytra. About 8 mm long. Family Curculionidae. This weevil is also parthenogenic, has fused wing elytra and is unable to fly. Grubs develop in the ground. A widespread garden pest in North America. This year is the first time I have seen it here in San Cristobal. At 2,200 meters, it is always cool and temperate in climate.
Semi-rural residential area, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, 2,200 meters.
It drops to the ground suddenly when disturbed. "At the beginning of the 19th century the distribution of Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Fabricius) (black vine weevil) was limited to central Europe. The weevil was a sporadically noted pest by vine growers with patchily distributed incursions. Today O. sulcatus is a common pest species with a distribution covering most parts of Europe and North America, parts of Central Asia, South America, new Zealand, Japan etc. (Moorhouse et al. 1992). The weevil causes serious economical damage on a large number of horticultural and agricultural crops." From: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/...
Spotted on Aug 5, 2018
Submitted on Aug 7, 2018
6 Comments
Yes, thank you, I will find out who should know.
Detection of spreading pest species (usually found near habitations) is a perfect field for citizen science! You may inform phytosanitary services?
Btw, you asked: I live in Berlin (Germany)
I just found another one in the garden last night (3 October 18). Looks like we have a new pest species here that isn't reported yet.
No record yet in a 2010 paper (but from Colombia/Venezuela):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/...
This is a potential pest species!
Thank you thaptor! This is the first year I have seen this weevil here. I guess we would be categorized as tropical cloud forest here, but the climate is always cool at above 2,000 meters.
This is an European immigrant (well established in US):
= Otiorhynchus sulcatus.
Chiapas is not where to expect it (a temperate climate species)