Giraffe-Necked Weevil

One of the strangest creatures on the island of Madagascar is a giraffe-necked weevil.  There’s a reason for those long necks ... males use them for fighting.

This image depicts a male Giraffe weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa) as it appeared in Ranomafana National Park - in Madagascar - on the 13th of January, 2008.

The females’ necks are not as long as their male counterparts, but they have powerful legs.  Using their legs to fold a leaf in half, females curl-up the end of a leaf.  Mothers place a single egg into that curled-up leaf end. Each leaf nest seems to have its own design.  

As she builds her nest, the female giraffe-necked weevil exerts a great deal of effort for a single egg.  Among other things, she creates a kind of velcro strip which holds the nest together.  

When everything is finished, she snips-off the leaf nest and lets it fall to the forest floor.  If it survives, the egg  will hatch there.

The photo, seen above, is by Axel Strauss.