GP Fossil Hunter : New Fossils ! the Leptopius duponti fossil weevil cocoon from South Australia.
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GP Fossil Hunter : New Fossils ! the Leptopius duponti fossil weevil cocoon from South Australia.
The Leptopius duponti fossil weevil cocoon from South Australia.
Leptopius from Australia since there are a number of related species which make cocoons like that. In Australia they come mainly from the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia but are abundant along 300 miles of the South Australian coast up to the West Australian Border, and for about 40 miles inland.
We know in some cases that they are from Leptopius because occasional cocoons have been found with identifiable pupal remains still inside. Most of the cocoons from Australia are in the region of 100,000 years old, but some are much more recent and so heavily “lithified” that they have a fossil appearance. The Australians call them “bunny slippers”, “fairy shoes” or “fairy clogs” and they are frequently erroneously sold as “fossil wasp nests”.
The adult beetle spends its life in trees (generally acacia or wattle), eating foliage. It lays eggs in the tree and when they hatch, the grubs come down the trunk and burrow underground where they feed in the roots of the tree. At maturity, they secrete a sticky substance that causes sand and fine gravel to stick to them and this hardens to form a protective camouflaged case in which they can safely pupate. After a few months, the adult beetle emerges after making a hole in the case and the cycle starts again.
Leptopius duponti
The majority of the cases are probably Leptopius duponti, but other large members of the genus are doubtless also responsible and some are believed to be from cockchafers (Scarabaeidae) and other beetles that habitually pupate in the ground.
But similar items do occur elsewhere and have been reported from the Gobi Desert. Here’s another, which is from early Eocene deposits on the Edge of the Uintah Basin at the extreme NW of Colorado .
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