Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Hulk weevil - oh yeaahh!

I sometimes find one of these chaps wandering around my tomatoes or peppers committing acts of vandalism. Structurally they are very similar to vine weevils but due to their greater size and penchant for the yellow I thought of them as Hulk Hogan weevils and never bothered to look them up properly.


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When I did, they turned out to be kind of well known with the proper name of Diaprepes abbreviatus. Its a caribbean native agricultural pest known as sugar cane root borer weevil or orange root weevil.


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It was originally described by none other than Linnaeus and is even famous enough to have its own stamp down in St. Vincent. In spite of its reputation it doesn't seem to be harming my balcony crops too much and it looks cool so when I find one I leave it be (plus I'm worried it might hulk up on me).

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