Thursday 18 April 2013

Otiorhynchus (Arammichnus) atroapterus (De Geer, 1775)

You knew it had to happen eventually. After all, three quarters of all known life on earth is made up of insects, and half of those are beetles, and about two thirds of those... are weevils.

We'll skim the the taxonomy today:
Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Nephrozoa
        Bilateralia
          Protostomia
            Hexapoda
              Insecta
                Dicondylia
                  Pterygota
                    Metapterygota
                      Neoptera
                        Eumetabola (Grouping the true bugs in Hemiptera with the following taxon)
                                              Endopterygota, the insects that undergo 'complete' metamorphosis.
                            Coleopterida (Beetles and their closest chums)
                              Coleoptera (Beetles)
                                Polyphaga (most beetles excluding Carabids and water beetles)
                                  Cucujiformia (flat bark beetles and relatives)
                                    Curculionoidea (weevils)
                                      Curculionidae ('True' weevils)
                                        Entiminae (broad-nosed weevils)
                                          Phyllobini (leaf weevils)
                                            
Otiorhynchus (Arramichnus) atroapterus
(De Geer, 1775)

Otherwise known as the Black Marram Weevil. Behold:
Otiorhynchus (Arammichnus) atroapterus (De Geer, 1775), East Head, West Wittering, Sussex, UK, March 2012

Although quite closely related to a number of pest species (most notably the Black Vine Weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus), this weevil, as the common name suggests, is a specialist feeder on marram grass and a handful of closely related plants.

Its flightlessness, common in its genus, ensures that it does suddenly zoom out of its narrow band of preferred habitat and into the sea (which is a simplification of an explanation as to why a lot of island animals become flightless). It also has reasonably enlarged feet to allow it to walk without undue difficulty on the sandy dunes where its food-plants grow.

This lovely little individual was found on the successional dunes between salt-marsh and the Solent, at East Head, West Wittering, West Sussex, UK, back in March 2012. 

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