We only have one hollyhock in the garden, but ...
Bugsrus
Registered Users Posts: 182 Major grins
... the hollyhock weevils found it and look like they plan on establishing a local population.
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Lovely captures Ed.
So the females are "nosier" than the males?
Brian v.
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Nice shots, Ed.
I didn't know about this species, although we grow hollyhocks every year.
The long snout is for chewing a hole in the seed to receive an egg.
Harold
Great shot(s). I'd never heard of these either.
Poor Hollyhocks - having to endure injury with insult (putting up with Weevil-porn).
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Thanks everyone. Harold - I'm not sure if they are found in the U.K. For the biologically inclined, this is Apion longirostre or Rhopalapion longirostre. It is one of the more extreme forms of sexual dimorphism in the coleoptera that I know of. Not only is the nose longer in the female, but the male has a much hairier appendage (no jokes please). The weevils never fail to amaze me. I took some shots of weevils on figwort the other day, only to find that they were very specifically the figwort weevil.
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Yes, they have been found in London.
Harold