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Māori
name: pēpeke nguturoa, tuwhaipapa, tuwhaitara
English name: giraffe weevil
Scientific name: Lasiorhynchus barbicornis (Fabricius)
order
= Coleoptera; family = Brentidae
- occurs
throughout Aotearoa / New Zealand;
- at up to 80 mm is the longest of our beetles;
- length is mostly taken up by the snout, underneath which is a long
comb of stiff bristles;
- antennae are very near the tip of the snout in males, but in the smaller
female they are near the middle;
- eggs are commonly laid in holes chewed by the female in the wood of
karaka, houhere, and pigeonwood;
- larvae that hatch from these eggs tunnel in the wood, feeding and
growing until they are ready to change into adults;
- male is considered to resemble closely a Māori canoe, or waka,
and it fittingly has a place in Māori mythology as the god of a
new-made waka.
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