Gaillardia World: Fungus Weevils (Miniature Rhinoceruses)

An exciting mystery for me was the constant presence (July-October) of little armored beetles with big noses.   

October 5-15, 2022.

BugGuide.net looked at my photos and identified my beetles as Fungus Weevils, (Family Anthribidae).

But that only deepened the mystery, as BugGuide agreed with multiple internet resources that Fungus Weevils live on fungi, on decaying organic matter, and under the bark of trees.*  

What were fungus-eaters that live on trees doing eating pollen on blooming flowers?  

Here are some Fungus Weevils happily foraging in Gaillardia flowers:

You can hear the progression of the season in the sound-track

of this video, from Indigo Buntings singing in July, to cicadas

screaming in August, to katydids trilling in September, to crickets 

chirping in September.

I turned for answers to Kansas Arthropods, a Facebook group for experts and enthusiasts.   Experts there did independent research and came up with Trigonorhinus limbatus as a likely ID, as T. limbatus is actually a pollen-eater!  And prefers plants like Gaillardia in the Sunflower Family!   However, a famed entomologist in our FB group also sent me to the beetle group of our national Natural History Museum.  That group confirmed Trigonorhinus as a genus, but put a question mark by the species.   That was because most of the species in Trigonorhinus are pollen-eaters, with a preference for sunflowers.  In addition, the species resemble each other and frequently interbreed.   

So even experts could not identify my mystery beetles down to species from photos alone.  

Whatever their specific identities, the Trigonorhinus were busily making more:

Trigonorhinus, Male and Female, July 2022

When I encounter these beetles next year, I think it may be easier to remember the etymology of their genus name, Trigonorhinus, than the name itself.   Coming from the Greek via Latin, it means "Three-angled Nose."  Yes, that nose!!   Unforgettable!!

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*Now looking back at my initial sources of information, I see they used the hedge-words "most" to describe the Anthribids who eat fungi and "mostly" to describe fungi as their food source.   So they were accurate as far as they went, just not comprehensive--which I am learning is almost impossible to do when it comes to insects!