All the images here were taken with a Nikon D80 and a Tamron SP90
The Bridelia tomentosa host plant is quite common in the urban area and wherever you find this plant, you'll most likely find the giraffe weevils/long necked beetles (Paracycnotrachelus sp) too.
1. first she inspects the leaves to find a good one
2. she spends quite a while inspecting that white thingy :)
3. a worm...surely not her baby. Will it harm her baby later?
4. she went into the half rolled leaf and spend a long while in there, presumably to lay egg?
5. she came out and started rolling the leaf again
6. rolling....rolling...
7. she keeps on rolling
8. still rolling
9. almost done!
10. she now severes the center vein
11. now the whole thing with her egg inside was like hanging by a thread!!!
12. all done, now she can just sit back, relax, and munch on some delicious leaves
As mentioned in #11, the whole nest was like hanging by a thread. I suspected that she was an inexperienced mother, at least that was what i thought at that time. My suspicion was confirmed the following day. The nest was gone. Must have dropped due to the heavy rain and wind.
I personally find that great books such as The Smaller Majority
and great DVDs such as Life in the Undergrowth
have benefited me tremendously.
Different populations of leaf-roller weevils tend to drop rolled leaves (called nitidi) at different rates. It is unknown why or what the relative advantages of dropped versus undropped nitidi are. Studies that have looked at parasitism in dropped versus undropped found higher rates in whichever was more common at that location. An interesting puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting Ted. Thanks for the info :)
ReplyDeleteI found more info on this: http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200422/000020042204A0753023.php
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