Weevil

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weevil
Platyrhinus resinosus

Platyrhinus resinosus

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera)
Subordination : Polyphaga
Partial order : Cucujiformia
Superfamily : Curculionoidea
Family : Weevil
Scientific name
Anthribidae
Billberg , 1820

The weevils (Anthribidae) are a family within the superfamily Curculionoidea . It includes 3860 species in 371 genera (as of 2004). Their main distribution is in the tropics, where numerous undescribed species are still suspected. Around 60 species have been recorded in Europe.

features

They are small to medium-sized beetles between 1 and 35 millimeters long. The sensors can be significantly longer, up to 90 millimeters. The family takes its name from the shape of the trunk (rostrum). This is almost always short, but wide, often the width of the head. The result is a flattened “board-like” shape of the trunk. In quite a few species, the trunk is so shortened that it can easily be overlooked (especially in the subfamily Choraginae ). As an ancient ( plesiomorphic ) characteristic, the weevils have a free labrum , this characteristic they only have in common with the family Nemonychidae within the superfamily . Of the Nemonychidae they are u. a. distinguishable by the absence of spurs on the rails ( tibia ) of the legs. The weevils belong to the more original families of the superfamily with straight, not kneeled antennae ("Orthoceri"), that is, the flagellum of the antenna sits on the shaft member in a straight extension and not at an angle. As with most weevils, the antenna has a three-part club made up of three widened antennae segments. The trunk in the trunk can top (Choraginae) or laterally ( Anthribinae be turned deflected). In non-European genera there are species with extremely elongated antennae, which, especially in males, can be several times body length. The shape of these species is reminiscent of longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae).

The weevils are usually hard sclerotized , "armored" looking beetles. As with most weevils, the wing covers (elytra) have a second edge on the inside, so that they are particularly firmly connected to the trunk when closed. The body is usually dark brown or black in color, rarely greenish, but in many species it has a striking pattern of light-colored hair or scales. In the tropics, however, there are also brightly colored species. The neck plate (pronotum) usually carries three keels (a basal querer keel and two longitudinal side keels). The elytra have rows of dots or stripes of dots, but they can be covered by hairs or scales. Next to the label there is usually an additional, shortened stripe; in the subfamily Urodontinae , the label is hidden and invisible when at rest. The elytra are almost always somewhat shortened and release the last tergite as pygidium .

Larvae

The larvae of the weevil have the typical shape of weevil larvae. These are short, maggot-like, somewhat hunched-over animals which, with the exception of the head capsule, are hardly or not at all sclerotized. As a rule, they have no legs, but in some species of weevil (as a plesiomorphic characteristic) larvae with stubby, two-part legs without a claw at the end occur. The body is usually uniformly white, the head capsule yellow or light brown in color. It is covered on the trunk with numerous fine bristles, the rest of the body is hardly bristled. Characteristic of the family is a row of four pairs of bristles on the labrum (also developed in the nemonychid larvae). The weevil larvae often have fleshy, lobed outgrowths (protuberances) on the sides of the abdominal segments. The head capsule bears a single, single-lensed larval eye. The mouthparts are directed downwards, the most prominent are the short and robust, two- or three-toothed mandibles. The antennae are very short and membranous, usually with a sitting cone and several thorns or strong bristles.

Way of life

The species in the family are predominantly tied to dead, partially decomposed wood. Females lay their eggs inside the wood by means of a specialized, sclerotized and serrated ovipositor ; like almost all other species in the superfamily, they do not use their proboscis to eat an egg-laying niche. The larvae live inside the wood mass, in which they dig galleries and passages. Food supply of larvae, however, is not known to be the wood itself, but wood-degrading Ascomycetes (Ascomycota). They only occur on wood that has become fungal, usually at an advanced stage of decomposition. In contrast to numerous wood-dwelling and fungus-eating ( mycetophage ) species, the weevils do not inoculate the wood when laying their eggs with fungi or fungal spores they have brought with them, they are dependent on existing fungi. As far as is known from intestinal content analyzes, adult beetles also feed on mushrooms.

Deviations from this way of life occur in large numbers. Numerous choraginae live on and from mushrooms, e.g. B. mushroom fruiting bodies without always having to be related to dead wood. The species of the small subfamily Urodontinae develop inside seeds (from Reseda species, cruciferous vegetables , irises and gladioli ). Species of the genus Anthribus are as imagines and larvae predators of scale insects . Other species live in lichens, in decomposed plant residues or in fern stems.

distribution

The family is spread around the world. Most of the species live in the tropics. The Urodontinae are restricted to the Palearctic (with a disjoint occurrence in South Africa).

Economic importance

The wood-dwelling species are insignificant due to their preference for strongly decomposed, fungus-affected wood as material pests.

One species, the coffee bean weevil Araecerus fasciculatus , which has meanwhile become cosmopolitan in warm latitudes, is a dreaded storage pest. The larva of the species lives in coffee and cocoa beans and dozens of other vegetable stores.

Euciodes suturalis from Australia lives mining in stalks of hogweed ( Dactylis glomerata ). It is considered a (relatively insignificant) agricultural pest in New Zealand, where it was introduced.

Taxonomy and systematics

Scientific synonym for the name Anthribidae is Choragidae (nomen rejectum).

The family of weevils belongs to the most primitive, basal lines of the superfamily with the most plesiomorphic features. Two possible positions in the family tree are discussed. Either they are sister groups of the Nemonychidae family , or, after the Nemonychidae have split off, they are sister groups of all other members of the superfamily. In molecular pedigrees, their monophyly cannot be demonstrated in all cases; with regard to the Nemonychidae, they often appear paraphyletic. The position of the subfamily Urodontinae is also unclear. However, an actual deviation from the relationships shown here is considered to be rather improbable, mainly for reasons of morphology. In addition, the family trees differ significantly depending on which gene is analyzed, e.g. B. between 16s rDNA and 18s rDNA.

The family is divided into three subfamilies:

The position of the Urodontinae was and is traditionally very controversial in science. Numerous earlier editors took them as a subfamily of the Bruchinae from the family of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), with which they have the general body shape and the way of life in common. Later they were widely regarded as an independent family Urodontidae.

Species in Europe

The following is a list of the species in Europe grouped by subfamily:

Subfamily Anthribinae:

Subfamily Choraginae:

Subfamily Urodontinae:

Other types (selection)

Fossil record

The oldest fossil weevils come from the Jurassic of the Karatau (or Qaratau ) fossil deposit in Kazakhstan , which was the first weevil was found.

swell

  • BA Holloway (1982): Anthribidae (Insecta: Coleoptera). Fauna of New Zealand Series, Number 3. Manaaki Whenua Press. ISBN 0-477-06703-4 .

Web links

Commons : Weevers (Anthribidae)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Rolf G. Oberprieler, Adriana E. Marvaldi, Robert S. Anderson (2007): Weevils, weevils, weevils everywhere. In: Zootaxa. 1668, pp. 491-520.
  2. ↑ a b c Joachim Rheinheimer, Michael Hassler: The weevils of Baden-Württemberg. Publishing house regional culture. 2010, ISBN 978-3-89735-608-5 .
  3. ↑ Brenda Μ. May: Larvae of Curculionoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera): a systematic overview. In: NZ Lincoln (ed.): Fauna of New Zealand. No. 28. Manaaki Whenua Press, 1993.
  4. ↑ Chan-Young Lee, Katsura Morimoto: Larvae of the Weevil Family Anthribidae of Japan (Coleoptera). In: Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture Kyushu University. 31 (1-2), 1987, pp. 71-86.
  5. ↑ ER Hoebeke & AG Wheeler (1981): Anthribus nebulosus, a Eurasian scale predator in the Eastern United States (Coleoptera: Anthribidae): notes on biology, recognition, and establishment. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 93: 45-50.
  6. ^ DR Penman (1978): Biology of Euciodes suturalis (Coleoptera: Anthribidae) Infesting Cocksfoot in Canterbury. New Zealand Entomologist Vol. 6, No. 4: 421-425.
  7. ^ Hans Silfverberg (1992): Anthribidae Billberg, 1820 (Insecta, Coleoptera): Proposed Precedence Over Choragidae Kirby, 1819. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 49: 194-195. biostor.org
  8. ↑ AE Marvaldi & JJ Morrone (2000): Phylogenetic systematics of weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea): a reappraisal based on larval and adult morphology. Insect Systematics and Evolution 31: 43-58.
  9. ↑ DD McKenna, AS Sequeira, AE Marvaldi, BD Farrell (2009): Temporal lags and overlap in the diversification of weevils and flowering plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106: 7083-7088.
  10. ↑ G. Kuschel (1995): A phylogenetic classification of Curculionoidea to families and subfamilies. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Washington, 14: 5-33.
  11. ↑ Anna K. Hundsdoerfer, Joachim Rheinheimer, Michael Wink (2009): Towards the phylogeny of the Curculionoidea (Coleoptera): Reconstructions from mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences. In: Zoologischer Anzeiger. Volume 248, No. 1, pp. 9-31. doi: 10.1016 / j.jcz.2008.09.001
  12. ^ Roy A. Crowson (1984): On the systematic position of Bruchela Dejean (Urodon auctt.) (Coleoptera). Coleopterists Bulletin 38 (1): 91-93.
  13. ↑ Anthribidae in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved December 22, 2019
  14. ↑ AA Legalov (2011): The first record of anthribid beetle from the Jurassic of Kazakhstan (Coleoptera: Anthribidae). Paleontological Journal Volume 45, Number 6: 629-633. doi: 10.1134 / S0031030111060074