This is the fourth species of giraffe weevil / leaf rolling weevil I have found in Malaysia. I even found a female building nest! These have been IDed as: Korotyaevirhinus necopinus orientalis, Legalov, 2003. (ID credit: Andrei)
I took too many shots of these weevils....but who can resist such cuteness? :P
Cute :)
Yes, the weevil ate that much!
When nature calls? No, it's not what you think.
I found these giraffe weevils on this host plant:
Host plant: Shorea.sp., Family: Dipterocarpaceae (ID credit: Nor Effendi)
The leaves
A newly completed nest
When I found her, she just started rolling the leaf! The main vein of the leaf had already been severed. The blue font indicates the time stamp. 2:44:39 pm.
A female with her newly completed nest / nitidi.
The last image taken of her with the nest was 3:51:04.
I created this short clip from all the stills I captured with my point and shoot / compact camera. Again, the text in blue indicates the time. The whole process took about one hour.
I guess what's missing now is a family picture. I mean, mating shot. I have seen so many of this species but never one with long neck, therefore I suspect that both males and females of this species have similar neck length.The final confirmation came when I saw a picture of a mating pair posted by someone on Facebook! You can view the image here.
Check out the other three species here:
http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2010/08/giraffe-weevil-and-its-host-plant.html
http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2011/03/spiny-giraffe-weevils-and-host-plant.html
http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2011/05/another-giraffe-weevils.html
As always, Kurt, your photos are phenomenal! These insects are so interesting--dare I say charming?
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for timing the nesting process. It's interesting to see how long it takes them to complete their work.
Thank you, Jason. Yes, they are so charming, so cute! I hope to find a mating pair soon!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your bugs! I know nothing about them but your photography is awesome! Hope you don't mind that I have a link on my blog!
ReplyDeleteThese are very sharp images. Good job.
ReplyDeletehttp://thepalguy.com/
Cheers
Thank you for dropping by and for the comments, Suzie, thepalguy :)
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