Nosed Saint Helena Weevil (Xestophasis nasalis)

The Nosed Saint Helena Weevil was described in 1877; it is, or rather was, endemic to the island of Saint Helena.

The species was apparently already very rare when it was discovered.:

“This singular Cossonid, so remarkable for the structure of its basally strangulate, superiorly gibbose, and anteriorly decurved rostrum (which is comparatively long and narrow in the females, but mesially thickened in the males to an extraordinary extent, and which has the antennae median in the latter sex, but post-median in the former) is one of the rarest, so far as my experience is concerned, of all the St.-Helena Coleoptera.  It appears to be attached to the Commidendron robustum, DC. [Commidendrum robustum (Roxb.) DC.], or gumwood, – amongst the old trees of which I have taken it sparingly in Thompson’s Wood (where it was also met with by Mrs. Wollaston), as well as in Peak Gut.” [1]

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The Nosed Saint Helena Weevil was not recorded during the most recent field searches and is very likely extinct.

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References:

[1] T. Vernon Wollaston: Coleoptera Sanctae-Helenae. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row 1877

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edited: 26.05.2021