Abstract
LARGE leaf-feeding weevils1 of the genus Gymnopholus (subgenus Symbiopholus)2, and certain other weevils, particularly of the genus Pantorhytes3,4 (broad-nosed weevils), as well as certain cryptorhynchine weevils3 and other beetles3,5, all inhabiting fairly high moss forest ridges and summits, mostly in eastern New Guinea, have been reported to carry small gardens on their backs. The association seems to involve symbiosis, with the weevils providing a favourable environment for the plants, and the plants endowing the weevils with a protective resemblance to cryptogram-covered parts of plants, or with chemical protection.
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References
Gressitt, J. L., Sedlacek, J., and Szent-Ivany, J. J. H., Science, 150, 1833 (1965).
Gressitt, J. L., Pacific Insects, 8, 221 (1966).
Gressitt, J. L., Pacific Insects, 8, 294 (1966).
Gressitt, J. L., Pacific Insects, 8, 915 (1966).
Samuelson, G. A., Pacific Insects, 8, 290 (1966).
Aoki, J., Pacific Insects, 8, 281 (1966).
Marshall, G. A. K., B.P. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers, 22, 71 (1959).
Gressitt, J. L., and Sedlacek, J., Pacific Insects, 9, 481 (1967).
Szent-Ivany, J. J. H., Papua and New Guinea Sci. Soc. Trans., 6, 30 (1965).
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GRESSITT, J., SAMUELSON, G. & VITT, D. Moss growing on Living Papuan Moss-forest Weevils. Nature 217, 765–767 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/217765a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/217765a0
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