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Project Noah Nature School
Rhynchophorus palmarum
The adults are 2-4 inch black snout beetles. The larvae are white with dark reddish brown heads and will range up to nearly 3 inches long.
The adult beetles are found in the lowland areas in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador where the Moriche palm (Mauritia flexuosa) grows, which is in swampy areas.
After a tree is cut down, while cutting the heart out of the top of the tree to eat, the adult beetles will arrive and lay their eggs. 1 month later the upper end of the trunk can be split open and the grubs harvested. You can continue this in 1 month intervals working down the remaining trunk until the trunk is so hard the grubs can no longer bore into it. All forms are edible: adult beetles, pupa, larvae. The more rotten the tree, the better taste the grubs have. Hmm. I'm getting hungry :-)
Spotted on Dec 8, 2004
Submitted on Feb 1, 2019
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