Illustrated catalogue of the weevil genera of Australia (Curculionoidea, Coleoptera)

by Debbie Jennings, Andrew Wright, Rolf Oberprieler & Hermes E. Escalona

Introduction

Australian Weevils (Curculionoidea) constitute more than 4110 described species in <800 genera, representing a large component of Australian biodiversity, yet this is only a fraction of the real number of genera and species since many more species and genera remain undescribed (Pullen et al. 2014).

Weevils are also of considerable importance in Australia. They are a large component of the insect community with main roles as pollinators (e.g., palms, cycads) and due to their high host specificity they have been use widely and successfully in biocontrol. On the other side many species are pest in agroecosystems, attacking a large variety of crops, from pastures and cereals to flowers and fruiting shrubs and trees to standing and harvested timber. Australia unique weevil fauna include entire groups largely restricted to Australia or the Pacific Region (e.g., Caridae, Belinae, Amycterini) or with close ties with New Zealand and even Chile (Pullen et al. 2014). The Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC, NRCA, NCMI) holds the most comprehensive collection of Australian Weevils thanks to the work of several dedicated curators and collectors like Everard B. Britton, John Lawrence, Andrew Calder, Tom Weir, Rolf Oberprieler, Geoff Monteith, Adam Slipinski among others but particularly due to the efforts of Elwood C. Zimmerman (1912-2004). Zimmerman since 1972, at 60 years of age!, devoted all his energy to build a world class reference collection of weevils with emphasis on the Australo-Pacific fauna and also together with his wife, Hannah Z., settled an endowment for weevil research at ANIC. He published six volumes on the taxonomy of Australian Weevils (Zimmerman 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994ab, Oberprieler and Zimmerman 2020) that forms the core of Australian weevil research.

The purpose of this website is to serve as a virtual portal to the Australian weevils’ “treasures” hold in ANIC to aid taxonomical identifications in a simple yet practical format, just click in the images or type the genus or species name in the search box at the top of the page. It was designed for a broad use, from insect enthusiasts to agencies dealing with biosecurity, ecology, pest identification and so on. The classification system follows a simplified version of Pullen et al. (2014) were tribes and subtribes were ocassionaly omitted to facilitate searching the site. We included pictures of almost all Australian weevil genera, missing taxa and taxonomical updates will be added regularly. The current format of the watermark pictures and their medium resolution will be upgraded in the future.

We hope that you enjoy the fascinating and endless diversity of the Australian weevils.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Federica Turco, Nicole Fisher, Olivia Evangelista and Anne Hastings (ANIC-CSIRO) for keeping the photographic equipment running smoothly and general assistance on online digital resources. Also thanks to Adam Slipinski and David Yeates for encouraging the development of this website.

References

-Oberprieler, R. and Zimmerman, E.C. (2020) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume VI.  Obituary: Elwood Curtin Zimmerman, Curculionidae: Entiminae Part I, CSIRO Australia, Clayton South VIC, xiv + 650 pp.

-Pullen, K.R., Jennings, D. and Oberprieler, R.G., 2014. Annotated catalogue of Australian weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Zootaxa, 3896 (1) 1-481.

-Zimmerman, E.C. (1991) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume V. Colour Plates 1–304. CSIRO Australia, Melbourne, x + 633 pp., 303 pls.

-Zimmerman, E.C. (1992) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume VI. Colour Plates 305–632. CSIRO Australia, Melbourne, viii + 707 pp., 328 pls.

-Zimmerman, E.C. (1993) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume III. Nanophyidae, Rhynchophoridae, Erirhinidae, Curculionidae: Amycterinae, Literature Consulted. CSIRO Australia, Melbourne, x + 854 pp.

-Zimmerman, E.C. (1994a) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume I. Orthoceri. Anthribidae to Attelabidae. The Primitive Weevils. CSIRO Australia, Melbourne, xxxii + 741 pp.

-Zimmerman, E.C. (1994b) Australian Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Volume II. Brentidae, Eurhynchidae, Apionidae and a Chapter on Immature Stages by Brenda May. CSIRO Australia, Melbourne, x + 755 pp.