“…and today we’re talking about a drill-faced fuzzy bug. But more on that later.”
Foodies pride themselves on variety and quality, but what if your face was designed around finding a single food item. The acorn weevil has a face that is specially designed to find, evaluate, and consume acorns– and that’s not all they do when they find a good one. Becoming a specialist and refining your taste is a great way to excel in Life, Death, and Taxonomy.
Measure Up
Welcome to the beloved Measure Up segment. The official listener’s favorite part of the show! The part of the show when we present the animal’s size and dimension in relatable terms through a quiz that’s fun for the whole family. It’s also the part of the show that’s introduced by you when you send in audio of yourself saying, singing, or chittering the words Measure Up into ldtaxonomy at gmail dot com. We don’t have a new Measure Up intro!
4.2 to 13 mm
The acorn weevil is the same length as…
- 1/7 a standard NFL football.
- 1/1.2 acorns
- 4 mustard seeds
Snout length
Also 13 mm
The acorn weevils snout is the same length as…
- 1/4000 the Mingo oak
- 13 poppyseeds
- 21 strands of cow hair
Fact: The Mingo oak in WV is a white oak and the tallest oak tree in the world.
Major Fact: You Know The Drill
The female acorn weevil uses her long, slender snout to drill into developing acorns. She has small jaws at the end of her snout, which she uses to bore a tiny hole into the nut. They also have antena fine tunes to finding the right nut. But they are attacked halfway down the rostrum, so they can reach whatever she is tasting.
She does so by swiveling her head back and forth to work her way into the acorn. Her head and neck act as a ball and socket joint. The head swivels like a ball point pen so much that her eyes can pass back into her thorax.
Once the hole is made, she backs up and lays her eggs inside. The larvae then develop within the nut, feeding on it until they are ready to emerge.
The larvae feed on the kernel and, once fully developed, tunnel out of the nut, fall to the ground, and dig small chambers for themselves. They may remain in these chambers for one or two years before pupating.
In British Columbia, up to 66% of acorns from Garry oak (Quercus garryana) were infested with these larvae. Although these acorns can still germinate, their germination rate is lower compared to uninfected nuts.