Identifying mysterious large beetle from the coast of Algarve, Portugal.
Location: Algarve, South coast of Portugal,
March 12, 2012 11:14 am
Hi!
I’ve been searching the web for hours and hours to try and identify this beetle, I’ve tried multiple ”identification helpers” to try and narrow it down to a family, but no luck. I took this picture while on vacation on the south coast of Portugal. I found it walking on the street by the docks, so maybe it helps that it lives near salt water? and it was a really hot outside, I don’t know it that matters either. The beetle has six legs, wings (it flew away), and a long horn-like shape in the front with two antennae’s attached. It was maybe 5-6 centimeters long, about the size of an average middle finger. I really hope you can figure this out, I think the pictures should be detailed enough 🙂
Signature: Greetings from Norway
The elongated snout identifies this beetle as one of the Weevils, and more specifically, it is a Red Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. According to http://www.aambiental.org/PalmWeevil/ it is known as “Gorgulho Vermelho”. The Red Palm Weevil is an invasive exotic species that was introduced to Portugal in recent years and it has become a serious threat to the date palms that have been planted.