Australia Insects

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Name: Weevil Cocoon (Leptopius duponti)
Geologic Age: Triassic
Location:  Aranbanga Volcanic Group, Queensland Australia
Comments: This specimen will come in the 3.25" x 4.25" Riker Mount as shown.

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Weevil Cocoon (Leptopius duponti)
Geologic Age: Triassic
Location:  Aranbanga Volcanic Group, Queensland Australia
Comments: This specimen will come in the 3.25" x 4.25" Riker Mount as shown.

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Weevil Cocoon (Leptopius duponti)
Geologic Age: Triassic
Location:  Aranbanga Volcanic Group, Queensland Australia
Comments: This specimen will come in the 3.25" x 4.25" Riker Mount as shown.

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Weevil Cocoon (Leptopius duponti)
Geologic Age: Holocene/Pleistocene
Location:  Eyre Peninsula, Southern Australia
Comments: These insect cocoons were found in the Holocene deposits of Australia.. they are believed to be from the Weevil, Leptopius duponti.  Analysis shows that these cocoons were made of sand or gravel with a secretion from the weevil larva.  The 
larva lived underground feeding on the roots or underground stems. When fully fed it prepared to pupate by making a chamber, or cocoon, where it underwent the change from larva to adult beetle. Instead of spinning a cocoon like other insects, the larva makes a cell in the earth by tamping the soil around it to form a hard wall, perhaps exuding a secretion which makes the soil or sand set like concrete. The larva entered the pupal stage which may have lasted for months. The new adult then pushed its way through the cell wall and burrowed to the surface