Karocolens tuberculatus

Taxobox
name = "Karocolens tuberculatus"
status = EX | status_system = IUCN2.3
extinct = recently rediscovered, but status not yet changed


image_width =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Coleoptera
familia = Curculionidae
subfamilia = Molytinae
genus = "Karocolens"
species = "K. tuberculatus"
binomial = "Karocolens tuberculatus"
binomial_authority = (Pascoe, 1877)
synonyms = "Hadramphus tuberculatus" "Lyperobius tuberculatus"

"Karocolens tuberculatus" (known as the Canterbury knobbed weevil, Spaniard weevil or Banks Peninsula speargrass weevil) is a rare weevil endemic to the Christchurch area in the South Island of New Zealand. It was thought to be extinct from 1922 to 2005.

Description

"K. tuberculatus" is a flightless weevil with a knobbed back. It reaches a length of 11.7 to 16.3 mm and a width of 6.5 to 8.3 mm. It has a dark brown body with greyish-brown scales.

tatus

It was apparently common over the Canterbury Plains in the 1870s. The causes for its disappearance were possibly the removing of the speargrass, its host plant, by farmers and the arrival of rats in that region which had eaten the beetles. It was last seen in 1922 until it was rediscovered in late 2004 by research students of the University of Canterbury at Burke’s Pass near Lake Tekapo, South Canterbury, New Zealand. It is now listed as nationally endangered in the red list of New Zealand but still listed as extinct in the 2007 IUCN redlist because their assessment for this species was made in 1996.

References and external links

* IUCN2006
assessors=World Conservation Monitoring Centre
year=1996
id=39307
title=Karocolens tuberculatus
downloaded=1 May 2007
* [http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/conservation/native-animals/invertebrates/011-beetles-curculionids-i.pdf Description and Image]
* [http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/science-and-technical/tsop20h.pdf Image of a Museum specimen]
* [http://www.ento.org.nz/nzentomologist/free_issues/NZEnto19_1_1996/Volume%2019-15-22.pdf Past distribution of large weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in the South Island, New Zealand, based on Holocene fossil remains]
* [http://www.comsdev.canterbury.ac.nz/news/2005/050202b.shtml Discovery brings weevil back from the brink]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10127298 'Extinct' bug found alive and well in high-country reserve]