Saturday 12 October 2013

Phyllobius (Metaphyllobius) pomaceus, Gyllenhal, 1834

We've not had enough beetles recently to be representative of their international faunal dominance.

To redress the balance:

Phyllobius (Metaphyllobius) pomaceus, Bosham, West Sussex, UK
Photographed in Bosham, West Sussex, in May 2012, using an Olympus E-420 with Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.
This is one of several green Nettle Weevils found in the UK and Europe, specifically:

Phyllobius (Metaphyllobius) pomaceus
Gyllenhal, 1834

As with weevils generally, it is a herbivore - feeding, as you may guess from the name, upon stinging nettles - and is harmless. Except to nettles, which it can be devastating to. 
Although nettles are still generally considered a nuisance plant, their abundance has plummeted across much of the UK - and certainly undisturbed stands are essentially absent from the south - and this weevil, along with many other nettle-dependent insects, is also suffering declines, although the vestiges of its former abundance are still enough for many of these species to remain common, if not in comparison to populations a decade or two ago...

Comment over, and onwards into the taxonomy. We're going to mix and match a few old ways of doing this today... Our featured creature belongs to the:

(binomials are links to original page for each species).
NOTE: Above phylogeny is a summary, and is not complete either in levels or in what is included at each. Also, two further domains, the Archaea and the Prokaryota are not included anywhere in



At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the Watford Coleoptera Group website is an excellent and free resource on British Beetles...

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