
The Granary Weevil: Pantry Monster of Our Own Creation - tshannon
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/08/677763131/meet-the-granary-weevil-the-pantry-monster-of-our-own-creation
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gumby
Something didn't make sense to me: if the weevil evolved in the Himalayas and
spread by human contact, how could there be a _maize_ weevil when human
colonization of the americas predated agriculture and then restarted only
about 600 years ago?

Turns out it goes after all sorts of grains, and is even referred to in the US
mostly as a rice weevil. Which is a relief, as otherwise the rest of the
article would be dubious. It looks like it was named as such solely because it
was first identified as a species in the late 1800s, presumably in a
transplanted crop.

It's also annoying that NPR called it "sitophilius" which doesn't make sense
(the genus is actually Sitophilus -- "grain lover" which makes more sense,
though that typo seems for some reason to be pervasive).

