Finally, I have finished redesigning all Curculionidae gallery pages. What took me so long was the group Metapocyrtus which had so many images to be resized and processed. Add to that the arrangment of 57 individual photos to fit in one page, the biggest so far in this site, belonging to the group and really, it’s kind of bloody.
However, looking at the new layout of this family’s page and you will just be amazed at the spectacular colors and patterns especially those in the Tribe Pachyrrhynchini. It’s like looking at a lightbox of beautiful specimens.
Star of the group is of course, those under the genus Pachyrrhynchus of which there are several images from different parts of the country both identified and unidentified. It is then followed by the genus Metapocyrtus, other Pachyrrhynchini species, Alcidodes (group 1 and 2) and Celebia genera and finally, other Curculionid species that took my fancy.
Roberto Mignani of Roma Tre sent me an email regarding the Bolboceratidae in the Philippines as he has seen it in the gallery page. According to him, this group is not officially (not published in literature) known. However, he has in his collection, Bolbochromus catenatus from Luzon. These two species shown here is from Mindanao and is not B. catenatus. According to him, these are quite rare and species of this group feed on underground mushrooms.
Shown here are Bolbelasmus sp. (right) and Bolbochromus sp. (left). Genus was determined by F vas-de-Mello.
The genus Pachyrrhynchus of family Curculionidae is striking for it’s spectacular colors and patterns that makes it popular with collectors and entomologists alike. However, there is another aspect that this group is famous for: model for a host of mimic species belonging either to the same tribe, the same family or even different coleoptera families of which the genus Doliops (Cerambycidae) and genus Metapocyrtus (Curculionidae) is very much known. I will talk about this one in a future post.
The photos shown above were collected at a particular forest in the Zamboanga Peninsula. At first, I didn’t notice this one but when I checked the specimens back home, I was just surprised that these three, all occurring in the same patch of wood, were in fact related in patterns to one another. In most cases, the model here is the Pachyrrhynchus sp. (left), probably undescribed. Following it is a Polycatus sp. (center) that almost approximates the elytral and pronotal markings of the former. And finally, a much smaller Calidiopsis sp. (right), that has lost it’s pinkish color due to rigor mortis. This last one is almost similar to the female of Polycatus sp.
These are just two mimic species. Just imagine if the usual species of Metapocyrtus and Doliops can be found and you have spectacular grouping of model and mimics involving five different species!
Just the other day, I was quite surprised to find, just a day apart, two cerambycid and one rutelid beetles on the curtain just within the confines of my screened room. How these got inside is a puzzle for me but anyway, these are still interesting specimens as I don’t have much beetles from Cebu, especially longhorns and I don’t think that the coleoptera fauna of the island province is well studied.
During the Spanish colonial period, especially in the 19the century, much of Cebu’s forests were already cut down to open the lands to the sugar industry. Much earlier, though unconfirmed, it is said to have been the source in building some of the galleons that plied the Manila – Acapulco route from the late 16th to early 19th centuries.
This greenish brown Popillia sp. was just hanging and stood motionless for much of the day. It is about a centimeter long.
Probably an Apomecynini sp. about 1.5 centimeters long.
This is a composite photo of the same beetle showing side and elytra. I’m not sure but it might be a Pterolophia sp. or some other Apomecynini species.
Three new cerambycid photos were uploaded to their respective species pages. All are males:
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