Food Plant: Cochlearia officinalis (Common scuvy-grass)

Mine: summer

Notes: C. insularis is a red data book species, which is unique to St Kilda within the British Isles. Prior to its rediscovery in 2004, the only previously published finding was from 1931. The weevil’s food plant is common scurvy-grass (Cochlearia officinalis), the only wild crucifer recorded on St Kilda.

A population regarded as a different variety of the same species occurs on islands off the South coast of Iceland. C. insularis is related to the common cabbage leaf weevil, C.minutus (= contractus), which is found on mainland Britain and in Europe. It ‘s similar to a variety of C.minutus, which is found on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.

Data: vi.2005, St Kilda, VC110

Image:© Jeanne Robinson