Nature’s Calling – Hose nose cycad weevil
If you would like to make contact with Warren to have some of your interesting insects, snakes or spiders identified, send him a WhatsApp or call him on 072-211-0353.
A good friend of mine contacted me last week, he was a little concerned about some bugs that appeared to be feeding on his cycad seeds.
I asked him to bring some of the little creatures for me to have a look at, what he brought to me is something that I have only ever seen in books and did not quite believe to be real, tiny beetles with very long noses.
I turned to google to try identify these curious looking little bugs, I soon found out that these are hose nose cycad weevils, antliarhis zamiae. They have a shiny brown body that measures less than a centimeter in length, then the ‘nose’ can be up to three times as long as the body with mandibles at the end. As their name suggests, their life cycle revolves around cycads.
The females have a much longer nose than the males and this is for a very good reason. The female will use that very impressive looking snout to bore a hole into the cycad seed, going through the soft flesh and the nut-like shell till they reach the seed, they then deposit some eggs by the seed. These eggs soon hatch and the developing larvae feed on the seed of the cycad, hollowing it out, the larvae pupate inside the seed and only emerge when they are adult weevils.
What strange looking bugs they are, could you just imagine living your life with a huge pole attached to your face, and to think that they can even fly with this long straight appendage. I love finding new and unique insects to learn about, if you find any strange looking insects in your garden, take a picture and send it to me for identification. If I don’t know what it is, I usually know someone who does.
If you would like to make contact with Warren to have some of your interesting insects, snakes or spiders identified, send him a WhatsApp or call him on 072-211-0353.
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