Chrysolopus spectabilis
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Chrysolopus spectabilis |
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| ( Fabricius , 1775) |
Chrysolopus spectabilis ( English among other things Botany Bay Weevil or Diamond Weevil ) is a beetle from the family of the weevils (Curculionidae), whichfeeds oncertain acacias andoccursin southeast Australia . It is the first insect in Australia to be scientifically described.
features
Chrysolopus spectabilis has an elongated oval body and a length of 15 to 25 millimeters. The cover wings are black and irregularly dotted in a bright metallic green color. On the underside the body is shaded in dull green, on the sides a white to green line runs along the entire body. The head, pronotum and legs are black and in places metallic greenish. The coloring varies depending on the season, animals hatched later in the year are more blue in color.
The trunk is about as long as the bell-shaped pronotum and clearly curved. The knee- shaped antennae start in the middle of the trunk, the antenna whip ends in a small club. The oval compound eyes protrude a little. The cover wings have a series of furrows with slight pits on the upper side, the underside of the body is also densely covered with scales . The strong legs are very hairy on the limbs , whereby the pair of claws is not grown together.
The larvae of the beetle are 40 to 50 millimeters long and have a round and wrinkled white body with a few hairs on the sides and a red-brown head with black mandibles . The pupal stage has not yet been scientifically investigated and described.
Occurrence and habitat
The weevil is found mainly in the eastern and southern states of Australia. The distribution area extends from the coastal regions of Queensland to Victoria and into eastern South Australia . Most often, however, it is found in the east of New South Wales , especially in the area around Sydney , up to the foothills of the Great Australian Mountains .
Adult animals are diurnal and nocturnal and can be seen especially in the warm months of November to March. The bug occurs during this time common in urban areas and forests in areas with moderate rainfall and especially in the vicinity of acacia ( Acacia ) on. Acacia species with paired pinnate leaves in tree-rich areas, such as the Blue Mountains , and acacias with widened petioles ( phyllodes ) in more open areas, such as northern New South Wales, are preferred. So far, adult animals have been identified on 28 (of about 1000 occurring in Australia) acacia species, the larvae on seven. It is believed, however, that the larvae live on the same species that the adults feed on.
Way of life
Chrysolopus spectabilis feeds almost exclusively on the parts and sap of certain acacia species, including the Cootamundra acacia ( Acacia baileyana ), the silver acacia ( Acacia dealbata ), the blackwood acacia ( Acacia melanoxylon ) and the long-leaved acacia ( Acacia longifolia ) . He usually chooses young plants that are not yet flowering and are 50 to 150 centimeters high. The long proboscis with the powerful chewing tools at its end allows it to drill holes in plant stems and leaves to absorb the sap and to build egg chambers.
In acacia plantations in southeast Australia, the species is considered a pest . Adult animals can destroy new shoots , while the larvae prevent the plant from absorbing water. By curling the bark, adult animals can ultimately cause the plants to die.
Despite its bright drawing, the beetle is non-toxic. The beetles are very attentive, if they feel threatened, they drop on the ground and pretend to be dead, or they claw their legs on the plant.
development
The development of the beetle is usually completed within a year. To lay eggs, the female weevils drill up to twenty small holes close together in the acacia trunks just above the ground and lay a single egg in each hole. After hatching, the legless larvae dig deeper into one of the main roots of the host plant and hollow it out completely over time. The adults of the new generation hatch in the southern latitudes of Australia in spring, in the subtropical north probably all year round. With the help of the mouthparts they drill a way out and leave the pupae shell in the root cavity.
Taxonomy
Chrysolopus spectabilis was described as the first insect in Australia by the Danish entomologist Johann Christian Fabricius in his work Systema Entomologiae after the return of James Cook's first expedition to England in 1775 . He gave it the name Curculio spectabilis ("weevil worth seeing"). Fabricius had had several visits to London in previous years to view the Cook Expedition's insect collection.
In 1817 Ernst Friedrich Germar gave the beetle the generic name Chrysolopus ("golden-green flake"), which is valid today . In the following decade, more species were placed in this genus, now there are eleven species, all of which are native to the ocean. The coloring of the directly related species is very different and varies from green to pitch black. There are currently no known subspecies of Chrysolopus spectabilis .
Discovery story
The first specimen of Chrysolopus spectabilis was collected between April and August 1770 on James Cook's first trip to the South Seas by the botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander as the only insect next to a butterfly, an ant ( Myrmecia gulosa ) and two flies. In summary, Banks wrote about the insect world of Australia:
"Of insects here were but few sorts and among them only the ants were troublesome to us."
"There were only a few types of insects here and of these, only the ants were a nuisance."
Strangely enough, the insect finds were not mentioned in the travel diaries of the Endeavor expedition, so there is speculation about the exact origin of the collected specimen. The weevil was probably not, as the common English name suggests, found in Botany Bay , where it is usually too cold and rainy for the species in April. The location of the discovery is therefore assumed to be the warm and dry surroundings of Cooktown in what is now Queensland, where the expedition stopped again in August. However, after the first colonization of Australia in 1788, the species was also frequently found near Sydney during the summer months , which justifies the English name "Botany Bay Weevil".
The English name "Diamond Weevil" was first mentioned in 1805 by Edward Donovan and is of British origin. It alludes to the "Diamond Beetle" ( Entimus imperialis ) native to Brazil , which can have a similar bright green markings and has been known in Europe for a long time. However, it has little in common with its Australian relative.
In the first years after its discovery up to the beginning of the 19th century, Curculio spectabilis was a sought-after collector's item in Europe not only for entomologists due to its unusual appearance . However, the demand was soon satisfied by constant supplies from the Australian settlements.
The type specimen of the Endeavor expedition is today in a cabinet as part of the "Banks Collection" in the Natural History Museum in London . The beetle is said to be in pretty good condition, even if most of the limbs are missing.
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Hawkeswood, p. 118.
- ^ A b Carl Johan Schönherr : Genera et species curculionidum, cum synonymia hujus familiæ . tape 2 (1) . Roret, Paris 1833, p. 247 .
- ↑ a b c d e Trevor J. Hawkeswood: Review of the history, biology and host plants of the Australian weevil Chrysolopus spectabilis (Fabricius) . In: Spixiana . Volume 14, 1991, ISSN 0341-8391 , p. 17-26 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Trevor J. Hawkeswood: A new host plant for Chrysolopus spectabilis (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) . In: Victorian Entomologist . Volume 22, 1992, pp. 42-43 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Trevor J. Hawkeswood: A new larval host plant for the Botany Bay Diamond Beetle, Chrysolopus spectabilis (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) . In: Sydney Basin Naturalist . Volume 2, 1993, pp. 43-44 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ AJ Hunt, PJ Gullan and CAM Reid: Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera) and Other Phytophagous Insects in a Plantation of Black Wattle, Acacia mearnsii De Wild., In Southeastern Australia . In: Australian Journal of Entomology . Volume 35, 1996, pp. 85-92 .
- ^ Herbivores & insects. In: WattleWeb. National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia, June 2001, accessed April 28, 2009 .
- ^ Botany Bay Weevil. In: Entomology Collection Gallery. Australian Museum Online, 2004, accessed April 28, 2009 .
- ^ Curculio spectabilis. Entry in the Encyclopedia of Life , accessed April 28, 2009 .
- ^ A b Winfried PK Radford: The Fabrician types of the Australian and New Zealand Coleoptera in the Banks Collection at the British Museum (Natural History) . In: Records of the South Australian Museum . Volume 1, 1981, pp. 155-197 .
- ^ Zimmerman, p. 384.
- ↑ Chrysolopus spectabilis. Entry in the Encyclopedia of Life, accessed April 28, 2009 .
- ^ A b c Douglas Waterhouse: Insects and Australia . In: Journal of the Australian Entomological Society . Volume 10, No. 3 , 1971, p. 145-160 .
- ↑ Trevor J. Hawkeswood: Beetles (Coleoptera) of the Shell Picture Card series: Curculionidae . In: Calodema Supplementary Paper . No. 31, 2007 ( calodema.com [PDF; 504 kB ]). Beetles (Coleoptera) of the Shell Picture Card series: Curculionidae ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Edward Donovan: An epitome of the natural history of the insects of New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite, and other islands in the Indian, Southern, and Pacific Oceans . Francis, Charles & John Rivington, London 1805.
literature
- Trevor J. Hawkeswood: Beetles of Australia . Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1987, ISBN 0-207-15352-3 .
- John F. Lawrence and Everard B. Britton: Australian Beetles . Melbourne University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-522-84519-3 .
- Elwood Curtin Zimmerman : Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) . CSIRO Publishing, 1993, ISBN 0-643-05147-3 .
Web links
- Diamond Weevil. australian-insects.com, 2007, accessed April 28, 2009 .
- Botany Bay Diamond Weevil - Chrysolopus spectabilis. Brisbane Insects and Spiders, July 5, 2008, accessed October 17, 2009 .
- Chrysolopus spectabilis - Botany bay diamond weevil. Bega Valley Community, accessed April 28, 2009 .
