Alcidodes ocellatus
It is a beautiful tropical weevil that measures between one and a half and two centimeters in body length. It has a bright black background color with a bluish-greenish metallic reflection, which may be more or less intense depending on the specimen. Against this background stand out large, very contrasting and striking white rings: four of them in the pronotum (two in the anterior part and two in two separate angles) and eight in each elytra, arranged in three longitudinal rows. These white rings are made of tomentum, and a small spot of heart-shaped white tomentum is added to the rings, located in the center of the posterior edge of the pronotum, where it extends slightly backwards. The head has a long and sub-cylindrical face, gently curved downwards and with the antennae inserted towards the middle of it. The skullcap is tiny, oval, longer than it is wide and without tomentum. The legs are all of similar length in the female, but the male's front legs are longer than the middle and hind legs. The femurs have a peculiar shape, with a kind of preapical swelling in each one. The anterior tibiae have a large triangular tooth in the middle of their ventral aspect. The ventral part of the insect has a design similar to the dorsal part: white rings appear here, both in the thoracic and abdominal segments, on a black background with a greenish-blue metallic luster.
It is endemic to the Philippine islands. Its biology is completely unknown, it seems, however, to be a monophage or an oligophagus, feeding only on the foliage of a certain unidentified plant, the leaves of which can be seen in the only network photograph of a specimen of this species in its natural habitat:
Javier Ruperez, Spain, Velez Malaga
