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


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.htm​l

Beautiful Eurybrachyidae laying eggs

I found this beautiful Eurybrachyidae planthopper, laying eggs on a tree trunk. I spent about 2 hours observing, photographing and taking movie clips of her and the egg laying process :)

IDed as Chalia pulchra (GRAY, 1832). Family: Eurybrachyidae. ID credit: Jerome Constant.

The tree was Endorspermum malaccense.

Location: Selangor, Malaysia.


GIF animation of the egg laying process at different stages:

Please wait for the gif animation to load!





At one point, an assassin bug nymph came quite close to her, but retreated. Later, an ant came. You see only the ant here but not the assassin bug.


The assassin bug I mentioned previously.





I roughly counted and there were about 160 eggs.

Giraffe weevil and its host plant Bridelia tomentosa

An SLR macro photography tip on how and where to find the bug/insect/macro subject you want. In my previous post , I also shared another slr macro photography tip on where to shield bug/shield bug nymph.

Most of the images here were shot with a Canon 40D, MPE65 1X-5X Macro Lens and MT24EX Macro Twin Flash with DIY Concave Diffuser.

A female giraffe weevil/long necked beetle, Paracycnotrachelus sp. on its host plant, Bridelia tomentosa. Its breeding cycle is only completed on this host plant. A complete nest building process of the giraffe weevil/long necked beetle on this host plant Bridelia tomentosa can be found here:



Host plant Bridelia tomentosa. Female giraffe weevil builds nest on this host plant and lays egg in it. The nest is called nitidi. (Thanks to Ted @ Beetleinthebush). These plants are not very uncommon. You can find them even in urban area.


A closer look of the nest (nitidi). Thanks to Chow CK for these two host plant images.


A male giraffe weevil/long necked beetle Paracycnotrachelus sp.. Male of this species has longer neck.


A female giraffe weevil/long necked beetle Paracycnotrachelus sp.


Another female giraffe weevil.


The next time you go bug hunting, just look out for these plants. Who knows, you might find your first giraffe weevil/long necked beetle Paracycnotrachelus sp. soon! Good luck! As for me, i hope to find a mating pair soon! Wish me luck :)

That's it for now and I hope you'll benefit from this slr macro photography tip :)

I personally find that great books such as The Smaller Majority and great DVDs such as Life in the Undergrowth have benefited me tremendously.

Shield bugs (Pycanum rubens) and host plant Simpoh Air (Dillenia suffruticosa)

An SLR macro photography tip on where and how to find the bug/insect/macro subjects you want. This time it's about shield bug/shield bug nymph. If you want to find giraffe weevil/long necked weevil, you can find out more from here.

Most of the images here were shot with a Canon 40D, MPE65 1X-5X Macro Lens and MT24EX Macro Twin Flash with DIY Concave Diffuser.


A shield bug nymph Pycanum rubens sucking sap from a Simpoh Air leaf Dillenia suffruticosa. I have always thought that it can only moves its proboscis up, down, frontward, backward, i.e. all within the same plane, but obviously i was wrong. It can move its proboscis sideway too as evident in this pic.


This will be the first of hopefully many more posts to come on some interesting insects/bugs and their host plants/favorite plants. This should make bug hunting easier, but as always, keep your eyes open and look just about anywhere and everywhere.

Simpoh Air plant (Dillenia suffruticosa) is a shrubby tree that grows vigorously on eroded soil, wasteland, forest edges and swampy areas. More info here. Image courtesy of CK Chow.


An adult Shield bug (Pycanum rubens) on its favorite plant - Simpoh Air (Dillenia suffruticosa)



Adult Pycanum rubens shield bugs



Adult Shield bug and shield bug nymph (Pycanum rubens) sucking sap from a Simpoh Air leaf(Dillenia suffruticosa)


Another shield bug nymph (Pycanum rubens). This is was more mature than the pink one i think.


This shield bug nymph (Pycanum rubens) was less mature than the green one


Now that you have read about this slr macro photography tip, it's time to go look for your first pink shield bug nymph. Good luck!

I personally find that great books such as The Smaller Majority and great DVDs such as Life in the Undergrowth have benefited me tremendously.

Giraffe Weevil building nest/laying egg

This is how a female giraffe weevil/long-necked beetle (Paracycnotrachelus sp) builds a nest and lays egg on its host plant,  Bridelia tomentosa plant. The female giraffe weevil/long necked beetle spends about one hour to complete building her nest and lay egg inside the cradle.

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.