CLOSED: Polydrusus cervinus, Curculionidae?

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

After looking at many of these very similar beetles, I think this one is Polydrusus cervinus Family Curculionidae.

Some links to peruse, if anyone agrees or disagrees please do, they are note easy!

http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/polydrusus_cervinus.html

I thought Phyllobius betulinus was similar too,

http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/html/IColeopteraCurculionidae.html

http://claude.schott.free.fr/Phyllobius/Pyll-Poly-liste-planches.html

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Polydrusus%20cervinus&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Garden Safari mentions it as being brown so maybe it's another (the claude.schott site shows it green), although the top right pic looks similar,

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/polydrusus_cervinus.htm

On Garden Safari it states:

"The difference between the Phyllobius species and the Polydrusus group can be told from the upper part of the leg: it is smooth in Phyllobius, while Polydrusus has a small hook there."

Mine has that small hook as can be seen on the front lower leg, so I think I'm satisfied it is a Polydrosus.

It also states that Polydrusus sericeus is the most common in our gardens, but the legs look too brown to me in their pics, and I don't see that hook they mention!

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/weevils.htm

On the unimaas site Polydrusus cervinus is green, and it looks very close to mine. It's listed in the May beetles as earliest dates, my pic was taken on 4th June.

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Beetles/spbeetles3.html

Photos of both near the bottom,

http://insektenfotos.de/insects_coleoptera.htm

Verified samples on this site,

http://thewcg.org.uk/pages/thumbnails.htm

This is where the info on Garden Safari doesn't ring true, unless the hooks meniton on the leg tops are something other than what I'm seeing, looking at Phyllobius maculicornis it does have hooks.

I'm not sure if I can see those on the wcg pic of Polydrusus cervinus, so did Garden Safari muddle this point as I couldn't see hooks on their Polydrusus sericeus either.

This leads us to a probability of mine being Phyllobius maculicornis.



























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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

Longus gappus, lol.

Another view

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

Pic 3

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

Pic 4. Size of this weevil was about 1/4".

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

I went back to the wcg site and conclude tis is most likely Phyllobius pomaceus, common in the UK but litttle mention elsewhere.

http://thewcg.org.uk/Curculionidae/0283G.htm

I have read the description carefullly, and black legs, gold lustre on green etc do fit well. If no-one has any objections then I will close this.

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 07, 2008

I think this site nails it on the head, mentioning the main ID points and two similar species which are much smaller.

http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref/Animalia_inverts/Phyllobius_pomaceus.html

Vital characters for confirmation of P. pomaceus are:
i) relatively large size, length 7-9 mm;
ii) the femora each bear a conspicuous, more or less ventral tooth (most easily seen on the front pair of legs);
iii) the legs are black beneath the scales;
iv) the antennae are dark beneath the scales, though tinged rust right at the base and sometimes at the tips;
v) nettles (Urtica) as the host plant.

I will mark this as solved.

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