Tag Archives: Chalcotrogus

Chalcotrogus oblongior Wollaston

Longish Chalcotrogus Weevil (Chalcotrogus oblongior)  

This species was described in 1877, it was endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean.  

Thomas Vernon Wollaston, the author of the species writes.:  

Of this species I have seen hitherto but two examples, which were taken by myself on the high central ridge. Unfortunately they are both of them females; so that I am not able to decide whether the rostrum is at all apically-dilated (at the insertion of the antennae) in the males. ” [1]

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The Longish Chalcotrogus Weevil was already very scarce when it was discovered and described, it was not found again during searches in 2005/06 and thus is believed to be extinct. [2]

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References:  

[1] T. Vernon Wollaston: Coleoptera Sanctae-Helenae. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row 1877 
[2] Howard Mendel; Philip Ashmole; Myrtle Ashmole: Invertebrates of the Central Peaks and Peak Dale, St. Helena. Report for the St Helena National Trust, Jamestown 2008

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edited: 02.12.2018

Chalcotrogus apionides Wollaston

Sharp-snouted Chalcotrogus Weevil (Chalcotrogus apionides)  

This species was described in the year 1877, it was endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean.  

Thomas Vernon Wollaston, the author of the species writes.:  

The C. apionides is extremely scarce, and confined to the high central ridge, – where normally it is, without doubt, attached to the damp and decayed wood of the old cabbage-trees. In such situations I have met with it along the “Cabbage Tree Road,” immediately below Diana’s Peak and Actaeon; but at Cason’s, like so many of the Cossinids in that particular locality, it has adapted itself almost equally to the pines, – beneath the dead trunks of which I captured it, not uncommonly, particularly about February, in company with the Pseudomesoxeni and varies species of Microxylobius, after the early summer rains.“ [1] 

Thus, the species was already very rare, when it was first discovered.  

The last records date from the years 1965/66, when the species was found during field surveys, unfortunately it was not found during all later surveys in the years 2005/06 and is now almost certainly extinct. [2]  

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References:  

[1] T. Vernon Wollaston: Coleoptera Sanctae-Helenae. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row 1877 
[2] Howard Mendel; Philip Ashmole; Myrtle Ashmole: Invertebrates of the Central Peaks and Peak Dale, St. Helena. Report for the St Helena National Trust, Jamestown 2008

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edited: 02.12.2018