Acorn Weevil (Curculio glandium) on a flower – France

Acorn Weevil (Curculio glandium) on a flower - France

The Acorn Weevil, a garden astronaut.

Carefully perched on the pristine petals of a stitchwort, this acorn weevil (Curculio glandium) looks like a creature straight out of a science fiction story with its spectacular rostrum.

This small beetle, an icon of the French countryside, possesses a unique tool: a rigid, extremely thin snout that allows it to bore into plant tissues. In the female, this rostrum is a feat of natural engineering used to pierce the still-soft shells of acorns to deposit an egg.