I’m reclycling my instagram posts here, to make them accessible for everyone who doesn’t use the platform.
It’s always interesting to know the weevils which are associated with well-known plants. So here’s the first part of a series on Agave-associated weevils!
End of July I visited the “Weevil Course & Roundup”, held in Portal/Arizona in the Chiricahua Mountains. It was fantastic to meet all the weevil people and to be able to discuss weevils all day long!
I didn’t find any Peltophorus by myself. There where not many flowering Agave, most plants with stalks where already too old for the weevils. Apparently, Peltophorus is also found on non-flowering plants, but far less frequently as they need the stalk to lay their eggs. You can expect to find Peltophorus in the Southwest of the United States (Arizona, South of New Mexico, West of Texas) and Mexico.
There’s a very good paper with an overview on Conoderinae in North America, Central America and the Carribean:
Anzaldo, Salvatore S. (2017): Review of the genera of Conoderinae (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. ZooKeys 683: 51-138. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.683.12080
And here’s a paper including some images illustrating the beetles life cycle:
González-Hernández, H., Figueroa-Castro, P., Rubio Cortés, R., W. Jones, R., & Valdéz-Carrasco, J. M. (2015). Primer reporte de Peltophorus polymitus Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) en tres especies de Agave (Asparagaceae) en México/ First report of Peltophorus polymitus Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on three species of Agave (Asparagaceae) in Mexico. ACTA ZOOLÓGICA MEXICANA (N.S.), 31(3), 473–476. DOI: 10.21829/azm.2015.3131090
