Amaurorhinus bewickianus (Wollaston, 1860)

Friedman, Ariel-Leib-Leonid, 2023, A review of the saproxylic weevil subfamily Cossoninae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Israel, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 52 (6), pp. 75-96 : 82-84

Amaurorhinus bewickianus (Wollaston, 1860)

( Figs 3, 14, 34)

Material examined: Israel: Judean Desert : Tell , Lahav-’ Arad, ii.1969, M. Warburg (4 exx.), either Judean Desert: Har Herodion, or Central Coastal Plain: Bar-Ilan University, ex cork from Portugal, 2019, E. Weiss (1 ex.) (see Comments below) .

Figs 21–29. Mesites spp. : (21) M. cunipes , male, dorsal view; (22) M. cunipes , female, dorsal view; (23) M. cunipes , microsculpture of pronotum; (24) M. pallidipennis , male, dorsal view; (25) M. pallidipennis , female, head and pronotum, dorsal view; (26) M. cunipes , male, lateral view; (27) M. cunipes , female, lateral view; (28) M. pallidipennis , male, lateral view; (29) M. pallidipennis , female, lateral view.

Distribution: Circum-Mediterranean. Europe: Spain, France ( Corse), Italy, Malta, Greece; North Africa: Canary Islands, Madeira, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt; Asia: Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel) Folwaczny 1973; HlavÁČ & Maughan 2013; Alonso-Zarazaga et al. 2023).

Biology: This species develops in rotten wood; occurs on seashores, in detritus in flooded areas, under dung, in walls (built of wood or containing wooden parts) ( Folwaczny 1973). Alfieri (1976) recorded this species from ancient Egyptian mummies, emphasizing, that this was most probably a recent infestation.

Comments: So far, only very few specimens of A. bewickianus have been found in Israel. Four specimens originate from an unnamed locality on the road between Lahav and ‘Arad, that is noted as “tell”, the local name for an artificial mound formed by the overlying debris of ancient settlements (after Negev and Gibson 2001). Most probably the weevils were found in the archaeological site, known recently as Tel ‘Arad, the archaeological mound above the Canaanite (5,000 – 2,500 BCE) and Israelite (2,500 – 600 BCE) settlements. The weevils were collected by the late Prof. Michael R. Warburg, who studied wood-lice (Isopoda), and collected numerous samples of the latter and, as a by-product, a rich assortment of other soil arthropods. Therefore, it is clear that the weevils were either sifted from the soil samples or collected with pitfall soil traps. An additional single specimen collected recently in Israel is of an unclear source. It was found on the plant remnants collected by archaeobotanists in the 2,000-year-old fortress of Herodion (Herodium) ( Fig. 34), built on the western edge of the Judean Desert by order and under personal supervision of Herod the Great)ca. 72 BCE – ca. 4 BCE(; although it was also suspected of emerging from the cork stoppers for glass tubes used in the archeobotanical lab, imported from Portugal (Ehud Weiss, pers. comm.). The author visited Herodion recently and noted numerous remnants of the ancient wooden beams protruding from the walls. Both localities are in the desert. All this confirms that A. bewickianus prefers dead wood, and particularly old dry dead wood.