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Sunday, August 1, 2010

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
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg on host plant Bridelia tomentosa DSC_5944 web

2. she spends quite a while inspecting that white thingy :)
female giraffe weevil inspecting Bridelia tomentosa host plant before building nest and laying egg DSC_5945 web

3. a worm...surely not her baby. Will it harm her baby later?
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5947 web

4. she went into the half rolled leaf and spend a long while in there, presumably to lay egg?
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5950 web

5. she came out and started rolling the leaf again
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5971 web

6. rolling....rolling...
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5973 web

7. she keeps on rolling
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5976 web

8. still rolling
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5979 web

9. almost done!
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5984 web

10. she now severes the center vein
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5986 web

11. now the whole thing with her egg inside was like hanging by a thread!!!
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5987 web

12. all done, now she can just sit back, relax, and munch on some delicious leaves
female giraffe weevil building nest and laying egg DSC_5988 web

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.

3 comments:

  1. Different populations of leaf-roller weevils tend to drop rolled leaves (called nitidi) at different rates. It is unknown why or what the relative advantages of dropped versus undropped nitidi are. Studies that have looked at parasitism in dropped versus undropped found higher rates in whichever was more common at that location. An interesting puzzle.

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  2. That's really interesting Ted. Thanks for the info :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I found more info on this: http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200422/000020042204A0753023.php

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