WEEVIL

 

A cracking shot of a pale green WEEVIL on the newish leaflet dispenser at Filnore Woods.  

Weevils are vegetarian so don't usually eat leaflets.

Sorry about the photography but as there are over 40,000 species of weevil worldwide I thought he should get a mention.  Here is a rather better image, from the naturespot website, of a member of the Phyllobius genus.  They are often found on nettles. There are 12 members of this genus in Britain and they are all very similar.

Photo: David Nicholls

Just met another one at Filnore today; it was perched on Alan's hand.  Another Phyllobius species, I suspect, but this one has darker legs.

Weevils are a group of beetles usually with a long snout or rostrum.  The mouth parts are at the end of the rostrum and the antennae, which typically have elbows, are part way along the rostrum.  

You can see those features on another British weevil Curculio nucum, the Nut Weevil, below.  Adults feed on hazel buds and leaves and enjoy a dessert of pollen and nectar from hawthorn flowers.  The female uses her long rostrum to bore into young hazel nuts and then she lays an egg in each nut, so that the larvae have a good supply of food when they hatch.  

Photo A J Cann, naturespot

Our little green job on the leaflet holder and on Alan's hand is a weevil with a shorter rostrum and a good bit smaller than the nut weevil - the lesser of two weevils.