What is the Evil Weevil?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

January 28, 2004

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It is one of the sadder sights in the environment--the southern live oaks with great arching limbs covered in resurrection fern, butterfly orchids, and curtains of silvery-gray Spanish moss. But high in canopy the stationary gray-green fountains of Tillandsia utriculata Linnaeus are disappearing. Their leaves lie on the ground; the work of the larvae of the Mexican bromeliad weevil
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(Metamasius callizona (Chevrolat)).

The bromeliad weevil is small, about 1.4 to 1.6 centimeters (~1/2 inch) in length with the typical weevil snout and antenna, and black with a bright yellow or orange belt across the wing covers. The species epithet, callizona, means "beautiful belt", a reference to this colored band and the only thing beautiful about this destructive beetle. The insect was first found in a nursery in Ft. Lauderdale in 1989 and although all plants were treated, the invasion was not repulsed.

The bromeliad weevil feeds on and damages the leaves of a number of bromeliads, mostly Tillandsia species, but can only successfully rear its larvae in bromeliads with a crown, a short conical stem that provides enough food for the grub-like larvae. The weevil can lay eggs in pineapples and decorative horticultural varieties.

Air Plant Adorns a Tree in South Florida
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In Florida's wild areas, the female selects mature Tillandsia utriculata--those approaching flowering age--for her young. She uses her mandibles to scissor a pocket-like slit on the underside of an inner leaf near the base and lays a single egg per pocket.

The two millimeter long egg is white and turns brown as the larva within it grows. Eight or nine days after it was laid, the larva hatches and proceeds toward the crown where its chewing severs the leaves from the stem of the Tillandsia. The beautiful Tillandsia utriculata does not pup like other bromeliads; it only reproduces from seeds. Infested with "evil weevils", the bromeliads never get the chance to bloom and produce seeds.

The Audubon Society has a great page on the identification of the Tillandsia of Florida's Corkscrew Swamp. To view the page, click on the link:

http://www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/corkscrew/Wildlife/Tillandsia.html

Scroll down the page, the photograph of Tillandsia utriculata is near the bottom.

(Compiled from: "Development of Metamasius callizona (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Pineapple Stems", Jorge Salas and J.H. Frank, The Florida Entomologist 84(1), March 2001 and "Mexican bromeliad weevil", Barbra Larson and J. Howard Frank, Featured Creatures, IFAS, University of Florida, October 2000)

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