Red Clover Seed Weevil
We found this little gray weevil crawling around on our wall on July 4, 2017. It was a little feller, maybe about 3 millimeters long.
The closest match I found on my own was the Cabbage Curculio, Ceutorhynchus rapae, which feeds on cabbages, mustards, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, and other plants of such ilk. But, it turns out I was wrong.
While the body shape is right, the general coloration is right the position of the antennae on the snout is right, and it certainly is a common enough species, there is a problem. The pictures of the Cabbage Curculio on BugGuide show it having a slightly more slender, black snout and black feet, while this one has a fatter, redder snout and red feet.
Down in the comments, Bob has set me straight. It is actually a Red Clover Seed Weevil, Tychius stephensi. This feeds on clovers, and is a non-native European species. Because of course it is. This is yet another in the long line of common species that are common because they aren’t native, and so nothing local has figured out how to eat them yet. Luckily, they don’t appear to be particularly serious agricultural or garden pests, mainly because their host plants (clovers) are mostly just grown as animal forage and ground cover and so nobody much cares if they get nibbled on by insects. In addition, these weevils are so small that it would take an awful lot of them to do any significant damage.
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Have seen these. Appreciate the ID
This is Tychius stephensi. It’s associated with clovers.
Thanks, Bob. I have corrected the post.
Comical look.
I showed a photographer friend of mine your blog and he was seriously impressed. 🙂