This red palm weevil (a snout weevil) is one of the two pests plaguing the coconut trees on our
island. The bugs were accidentally shipped here from Indonesia and have no natural enemies on the
island. The weevils dig inside the soft coconut buds. Like cancer, the weevils gnaw away at the
tender tissue until the coconut tree loses its crown and dies.

I was very disappointed when I found out what I photographed because it's such a beauty and so
ingeniously built. It landed at night on the sofa in the garden and I used the book I was reading
for a white background. It was a book about the life of Darwin ... a nice detail, so I left the
title in the shot.

Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Curculionidae
Genus: Rhynchophorus
Species: ferrugineus