"Acorn weevil subculture uprising was not on my bingo card"
-- Josh Serrano
Ever find an acorn with a single hole in it, as if someone stopped mid-process of turning it into a bead? Ever wonder why? Well, an adult female Curculio acorn weevil bored an even tinier hole with her rostrum into a developing acorn to therein place an egg, sealing the hole with a plug made from the acorn's material for a more protective environment. Once hatched, the larva ate much of the acorn's fleshy interior, internalizing as many resources as possible for its upcoming metamorphosis. When ready to pupate, the larva bored a larger hole to exit the acorn so that it could then burrow into the ground.
While holes in acorns indicate that the weevils have emerged, other small insects may use the partially hollowed acorn for food or shelter. Then again, they may not. The leftover bits of acorn that are not used by insects, or other wildlife, return to the soil to become organic mulch.
Oak trees produce far more acorns than could ever become trees. The extra acorns are an important source of food for wildlife like deer, foxes, pigs, rabbits, squirrels, and, as mentioned, weevils, supporting more species than any other genus of tree in North America. The weevil larvae in the acorns are an important source of protein for some wildlife as well. And, adult weevils fall prey to weevil wasps, who use them as food for their own recently hatched larvae.
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