Beetle - should be an easy ID

Ratatoskr · #1 (**permalink**) 18-12-2010, 07:00 PM

I know this one is not too uncommon, but I don't know it's name.
It was photographed at the end of Spanish summer time, in the beginning of October in arid areas of southern Spain.

Thanks,
Mats

basquesteve · #2 (**permalink**) 19-12-2010, 09:04 AM

Hi
Nice picture I am afraid your Beetle is a Weevil but I am no sure which one

Ratatoskr · #3 (**permalink**) 19-12-2010, 11:58 AM

Thanks

I didn't even know the correct family to look into.
I've now searched the net for a few hours and have come up with this one.

Could anyone confirm or deny this classification and explain why?
Coniocleonus cicatricosus

For image you can check on the french coleoptera site.

paul m · #4 (**permalink**) 19-12-2010, 02:35 PM

It does look very much like that: http://claude.schott.free.fr/Cleonin...oninae-PL1.jpg although it seems to be rather rare: Data Use Agreement - GBIF Portal - but the location seems reasonable. If it was abundant then we perhaps ought to consider alternatives, pretty closely related, I would think - or find someone who knows the weevils (Curculionidae) of the area well.

Ratatoskr · #5 (**permalink**) 19-12-2010, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paul m

It does look very much like that: http://claude.schott.free.fr/Cleonin...oninae-PL1.jpg although it seems to be rather rare: Data Use Agreement - GBIF Portal - but the location seems reasonable. If it was abundant then we perhaps ought to consider alternatives, pretty closely related, I would think - or find someone who knows the weevils (Curculionidae) of the area well.

Thanks Paul.
It's the first time I've seen it at the place, my moms & dads house, and I'm there for a few weeks every year.

P.S. I did not want to put the direct link to the picture on the French site as it specifically say when posting that "External images will be removed". So is it OK in these cases?

Ratatoskr · #6 (**permalink**) 20-12-2010, 05:57 PM

Hi again Paul,

I checked out the occurrence and you are right, it's very rare indeed.
It's not the first time I find a species that used to be very rare in the area I found it, or even having no records of being there before. But specialists have checked on my findings and found them to be correct.
This could be another such finding but I will have to report this with photo and all before I will know.
Hadn't you shown me the rarity of it, I wouldn't have reported it. Let's see first if it really is a Coniocleonus cicatricosus.

paul m · #7 (**permalink**) 20-12-2010, 06:27 PM

Shall look forward to a determination and for more information. this might be one of those species which has expanded its range rapidly. Weevils are particularly notable for doing this: rare one year - eating everything in sight the next!

Ratatoskr · #8 (**permalink**) 20-12-2010, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paul m

Shall look forward to a determination and for more information. this might be one of those species which has expanded its range rapidly. Weevils are particularly notable for doing this: rare one year - eating everything in sight the next!

Yes, I recently noticed that clearly, sadly.
Thanks to the boom in date palm plantations, and probably to a big degree palm oil plantations, the Red palm weevil has expanded explosively last 15-20 years from Asia where it before used to live on a naturally balanced way, of course. But with the plantations it no longer has enough predation and dispersion. IT arrived to Spain in 1994. This year it arrived to the US for the first time.
All this thanks to us not being able to produce in a natural way.

My parents had a BEAUTIFUL palm, around 30 years old, that we all loved and used to sit under when BBQ:ing. It got attacked this year and died within a few weeks even though they did everything to try and save it. It was our favorite plant in my parents garden, signature to their home.