Large Saint Helena Weevil (Pachymastax crassus)
This species was described in 1877, it is/was endemic to the island of Saint Helena, where it was the largest of the endemic weevils.
The species was apparently already very rare when it was discovered.:
“The P. crassus is one of the rarest, and most unmistakably indigenous, of the St.-Helena Coleoptera; and if I am right in suspecting that it is more particularly attached to the decayed trunks and branches of the Aster gummiferus or “little bastard gumwood” [Commidendrum robustum ssp. gummiferum (Roxb.) Q. C. B. Cronk], there is a fair chance of its becoming before long totally extinct.” [1]
… and it probably is now; as it was not recorded during the latest field searches in 2006. [2]
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References:
[1] T. Vernon Wollaston: Coleoptera Sanctae-Helenae. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row 1877
[2] Howard Mendel; Philip Ashmole; Myrtle Ashmole: Invertebrates of the Central Peaks and Peak Dale, St. Helena. Report for the St Helena National Trust, Jamestown 2008
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edited: 02.12.2018