In the animal world, the opportunity to mate with females often comes at a cost. Because in order for the female to understand that you are the ideal partner, you have to beat all the competitors and prove that you are the strongest. This is how the "giraffe" of the insect kingdom, the giraffe, obtains a mate.
Male weevils are attracted to the female's scent and come together to fight to win the female's favor. In the world of weevils, body size may be important, but the key is to have a long "nose", that is, tentacles. At the end of the tentacle is a claw used as a weapon. At first glance, for an unusually good-looking insect, giving the other person a first impression is the most critical factor in winning courtship opportunities. The male's slender beak (the part that looks like a nose under the eyes) occupies half the length of the body, and at the top is a pair of tentacles and a jaw-shaped mouthpart. The largest male weevil is 6 times larger than the smallest. Try to be as different as possible, but it's not just giant weevils that have a chance to reproduce.
Malagasy long-necked weevil
The long-necked weevil is actually a type of beetle, the largest living in New Zealand, often haunting the trunks of dead trees. Both males and females vary in size, but males are larger and reach 120 mm in length, compared to the longest females of only 50 mm. Their larval stage is 2 years, during which they continue to drill holes in the trunk, and finally do not drill the trunk until they grow up. Although the adult stage is only a few weeks long, camouflaged with brown bark, they make full use of the adult stage and gather together to form a breeding colony of more than 100 animals.
New Zealand long-necked weevil
Unlike males, females have tentacles that are located far below the beak, between the beak tip and its eyes. This allows it to be protected from other worms when drilling a hole in the end of the beak to store the eggs. When drilling a hole, it will rhythmically swing left and right to cut through the trees, and often pause to spit out the wood chips accumulated in the beak, and then flick it lightly with its tentacles. When the hole is drilled to a depth of 3-4 mm, it changes its position, lays the eggs in the hole, and then covers the hole with the wood chips drilled. The whole process takes about half an hour.
Only when the female burrows a hole in the trunk of a tree does the male mate with it. That is to say, for males, the sexiest time for females is when they start to drill holes. The first passing male, regardless of its size, would be attracted and stop standing next to the female to guard it. This allows the male to fertilize the eggs before the female lays the eggs. Of course, females don't just mate with this one male. All kinds of males of different sizes but with strong aggression are waiting to fill the upper position.
The larger male crept closer and swept its long tentacles over the guarding male's body, trying to injure and expel it. If this doesn't work, it will use its upper jaw to tear the opponent's limbs. Males with longer tentacles are able to hurt each other more forcefully where they can get them without hurting themselves. It wasn't until one of the males retreated or was swept out of the trunk that the battle was over.
In one-on-one combat, small males cannot compete with larger males and therefore avoid frontal attacks. So how do they win mating opportunities? All they can do is watch the large males fight each other and wait for the opportunity to strike. If two males are pitted and left alone with the female unattended, the small male can take advantage of the situation and mate with the female.
Even if the large male has guarded a female and has fertilized some of the eggs, it does not mean that the battle is over. Small males can keep their torsos as straight as possible, swing their tentacles low, disguise themselves as non-males, and slip in from the feet of large males undetected. It then carefully mates with the female without being spotted by the male standing guard happily. So at least some of the eggs laid by females are fertilized by petite but cunning males. ‘