Associate Curator Richard Hoebeke Publishes North American Weevil Manual

We are excited to announce that Richard Hoebeke, Arthropod Collection Associate Curator and Collections Manager has published the manual Adventive Weevils Recorded from North America: A Review and Illustrated Manual for their Identification with colleagues James R. LaBonte and Kent E. Loeffler.

While a portion of Hoebeke's current research includes taxonomic studies of beetles of the megadiverse families Staphylinidae and Curculionidae, his applied research focuses on the detection of and survey for non-indigenous invasive species among the North American insect fauna. During the past four decades, he has been recognized as a national leader in exotic pest detection, having discovered numerous insect species new to the Western Hemisphere, North America, or to the United States. He not only has collected and identified immigrant species belonging to diverse orders, but he has also authored or co-authored over 150 referred papers, mostly on exotic species, providing valuable information on their recognition, North American distribution, seasonal history, and habits. He was the first entomologist to identify the highly destructive Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) from an infested Brooklyn neighborhood in New York City in 1996, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) in eastern Pennsylvania in 2001, and the pine-killing European woodwasp (Sirex noctilio) from central New York in early 2005. Since 2001, he also has been an identification specialist supporting the joint USDA-APHIS and Forest Service’s “Early Detection and Rapid Response” survey for exotic bark and ambrosia beetles.

Weevils, or snout beetles, have been a group of great interest to Hoebeke over the years, as many of them are adventive (non-native) in North America. Beginning in 2009 and in preparation for an extended book project, he began gleaning literature on these non-native species with the intent to document all recorded species in North America and to provide high-resolution, color digital, images of each species. In May 2024, the hardbound book was finally published. In summary, it provides a comprehensive and current synopsis of adventive species of the superfamily Curculionoidea (weevils) reliably recorded from North America (continental USA and Canada). As of the date of this publication, in North America 204 species in 120 genera, four families, 21 subfamilies, and 62 tribes are reported as adventive, constituting about 6.2% of the continental fauna of the Curculionoidea. One hundred eighty-two species are recorded from the USA overall while 117 species are listed from Canada. Eighty-seven species are recorded only from the USA, 22 species only from Canada, and 95 species are shared between both countries. One hundred seventy-two species are considered immigrant, or accidental arrivals (including nine species thought to represent range extensions from the Neotropics into the extreme southern USA), and 32 species were intentionally introduced as biocontrol agents against invasive weeds. One species, Otiorhynchus crataegi Germar, is newly recorded from North America.

In North America, the family Curculionidae (true weevils) comprises the greatest number of adventive species (188, 92.2%) while the primitive weevil families Anthribidae, Belidae, and Brentidae together include 16 adventive species, 7.8% of the total. Of the 15 subfamilies of Curculionidae with adventive species, most are found in just three subfamilies, the Entiminae (62), the Curculioninae (30), and the Ceutorhynchinae (25). Most adventive weevils in North America originate from the Palearctic Region (148, 78.7%), followed by the Neotropical Region (36, 19.1%), Australasian Region (9, 4.8%), Asian Region (9, 4.8%), and Afrotropical Region (2, 1.1%).

A synopsis for each species, including common names, taxonomic notes, general appearance, diagnosis, distribution, hosts, and selected references, is provided, and each is illustrated with high-resolution color habitus images. Two tables summarize the adventive fauna, including dates of first detection, region of origin, and distributional status. Sixteen images of morphological structures are also given. In addition to the 204 adventive species (including nine range extensions), another 20 species, currently not known to occur in North America but recognized as serious threats based on their economic significance as major pests of agricultural crops in their native and introduced ranges, are also reviewed and illustrated.