March 2012. An identification was needed for this weevil found on rice in Nghe An Province (Central region), Vietnam. The photos were sent from the Plant Protection Department, MARD.

A member thought that it was the Broad nosed grain weevil, Caulophilus oryzae, Curculionidae, whose antennae have nine segments. It is common in the southern USA and West Indies. But another member thought that it was notlikely to be Caulophilus oryzae; this genus is in the Cossoninae, members of which are long, sleek and usually black; the species in question does not belong to this group. Pictures of Caulophilus are available at the following website:www.forestryimages.org/browse/subthumb.cfm.

Later, the Plant Quarantine Diagnostic Centre reported that it had identified the weevil as Echinocnemus squameus Billberg (Curculionidae, Coleoptera). This insect species was recorded in Vietnam in 1967-1968). There is a reference specimen at the MARD collection.

An expert on the group confirmed that it was indeed a species of Echinocnemus, and quite possibly E. squameus, although the speciment is abraded and doesn???t show the two whitish spots on the elytra that this species has (in fact most Echinocnemus species have). Also the legs are out of focus and don???t show the row of denticles along the inner side of the fore tibiae (for which the genus was named). But the general shape of the body, head and rostrum agree quite well with E. squameus, so it is probably this species, it occurs naturally in Japan, Koreaand China.