NORWICH AREA: A range of insects on Common Mallow

I've fallen completely behind with blog updates, so will now try to lump some similar things together in order to get uptodate by the summer.

A few years back I was sent a link to a publication called Beetle News, which had an article about the types of weevils you can get on Common Mallow. There are four, two rather similar ones and two that are easy to identify. At various points during June and July I kept having a look at mallow plants around the city, and eventually found all four species. There is also a rare one found on Marsh Mallow that I have been  shown in the past at Minsmere, whilst a sixth species occurs on Hollyhocks but hasn't yet been found in Norfolk.

Pseudapion rufirostre - a blackish weevil with orange legs. The third commonest of the four locally, but still found fairly frequently when searched for.

Malvapion malvae. Grey at the front, yellowy-brown at the back, so distinctive when found on Mallow (apparently there are a few similar species on other host plants, but not that are likely to occur nearby). The second commonest of the four species around Norwich from the plants I checked.

Aspidapion radiolus. A black weevil with grooved elytra (wingcases) and a textured pronotum. When looked at carefully there is no groove between the eyes. By far the commonest of the four encountered, but until you get your eye in it does need examination under a hand lens or a really good photo to check the groove is absent and eliminate A. aeneum.

Aspidapion aeneum. Similar to the above species, but the elytra are less grooved, it is slightly wider and metallic blue rather than black. When looked at closely it has a groove between the eyes. Whilst possibly overlooked as A. radiolus (weevils typically drop off the plant into the udnergrowth when you go for a closer look!) it appears to be the scarcest of the four weevils around Norwich based on my observations.

The same article also mentions two flea beetles that occur on Common Mallow, Podagrica sylvestris (which as orange legs) and P. fuscipes (which has black). I've not found either yet, but Stewart Wright found P. sylvestris in his garden on the day of a fungus foray and showed me.

Whilst checking Hollyhocks in a garden centre, I also found a mallow-feeding leafhopper Eupteryx atropunctata for good measure.