Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the August 17, 2007 Newsletter issued from Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO
A STRAIGHT-SNOUTED WEEVIL
BRENTUS MEXICANUS Sunday morning as I packed up my tent outside Margarita's cabin I found one of the most singular- looking beetles I've ever seen quietly resting beneath the tent's fly apparently sheltering from the night's rain. You can see the insect at the right.

My friend Jarvis in North Carolina, to whom I sent the picture, pegged it as a member of the Straight-snouted Weevil Family, the Brentidae, genus BRENTUS, looking like Brentus mexicanus, which can be found under tree bark. Members of the family eat wood.

The extraordinary feature of that beetle is its very long snout, and the way antennae arise from it. You expect antennae to arise around the eyes, not near the tip of an outrageously long snout. Also, the antennae themselves are a bit unusual for beetles, because they aren't "elbowed," or with sharp bends in them.