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Monday, May 28, 2012

Giraffe weevil building nest

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
Giraffe weevil / leaf rolling weevil...IMG_6004 copy

Cute :)
Giraffe weevil / leaf rolling weevil...IMG_5994 copy

Yes, the weevil ate that much!
Giraffe weevil / leaf rolling weevil...IMG_5907 copy

When nature calls? No, it's not what you think.
Giraffe weevil...IMG_5908 copy

I found these giraffe weevils on this host plant:

 Host plant: Shorea.sp., Family: Dipterocarpaceae (ID credit: Nor Effendi)
Host plant Shorea sp.. R0017647 copy

The leaves
R0017651 copy

A newly completed nest
Giraffe weevil nest....R0017735 copy

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.
Giraffe weevil building nest ...R0017667 copy

A female with her newly completed nest / nitidi. 
Giraffe weevil on her newly completed nest...R0017767 copy
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.htm​l




5 comments:

  1. As always, Kurt, your photos are phenomenal! These insects are so interesting--dare I say charming?

    And thanks for timing the nesting process. It's interesting to see how long it takes them to complete their work.

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  2. Thank you, Jason. Yes, they are so charming, so cute! I hope to find a mating pair soon!

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  3. I 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!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are very sharp images. Good job.
    http://thepalguy.com/
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for dropping by and for the comments, Suzie, thepalguy :)

    ReplyDelete

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