Strange: Papuan weevil has screw-in legs

Credit: Wikipedia

Mother nature outsmarted us again. We didn't invent the screw. The Papuan weevil has screw-in legs

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has found that humans were not the first species to invent the nut and bolt mechanism for screwing one thing to another: weevils do the same to attach their legs to their bodies instead of using the more familiar ball-and-socket joint.

Scientists from the Institute for Synchrotron Radiation at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (ANKA) and the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe in Germany, led by Thomas van der Kamp, have been studying Trigonopterus, a genus of 90 described species of flightless weevils originating in tropical forest regions of New Guinea, Sumatra, the Philippines, Samoa and New Caledonia. Scientists estimate there could be as many as 1,000 undescribed species in the genus.

Weevils are herbivorous beetles of the Curculionoidea superfamily represented by over 60,000 species found world-wide. The most widely known species are Sitophilus granaries, which is often found in stored grains and other dried foods, and Anthonomus grandis or boll weevil, known for its damage to cotton crops.