Otiorhynchus uncinatus Germar, 1824
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POLYPHAGA Emery, 1886
CURCULIONOIDEA Latreille, 1802
OTIORHYNCHINI Schönherr, 1826
OTIORHYNCHUS Germar, 1824
This is a very local and generally rare species with a restricted western Palaearctic distribution; it occurs mostly in central and northern Europe, extending south to the Pyrenees and northern Italy and east into Poland, Austria and Slovakia, to the north it is very rare in Denmark where it is known from only a single population, and in southern Sweden and it has recently been recorded from the UK. The first record from the British Isles was from Tipperary in Ireland during the 1960s, it was then recorded from Kent in 2005 and a further specimen was found in Derbyshire by Kay Riddell in February 2020. English specimens are almost certainly from stock imported along with plants from Europe, the species is flightless and the so very widespread occurrence of specimens might suggest that it is has been spread with trade within the UK and is thus likely to occur elsewhere. On the continent it is often found in upland and mountain areas and it seems to be common only in certain locations in the Alps. Adults have been recorded over a long season from early in the year and are probably present year-round, they are nocturnal and live among moss and vegetation on the ground and so may be under-recorded, they have been found on road verges and among vegetation on stone walls close to conifer plantations in Ireland, among mossy grass in old quarries in Derbyshire and in deciduous forests in Denmark-where they are sometimes numerous- and so might be expected from any suitably damp and mossy environment. Adults are polyphagous; they have been recorded feeding on the foliage of various deciduous trees and shrubs including alder, birch and species of Spiraea L and from a wide range of herbaceous plants such as self-heal (Prunella vulgaris L.) and various anemones. Little is known of the species biology but larvae very probably develop at the roots of a wide range of plants and this may be how the species has dispersed; among horticultural stock. Adults may be recorded by searching at night or by sieving samples of moss growing among low vegetation.
3.4-4.0mm (our smallest member of the genus). Body black to dark reddish-brown, head and pronotum with pale creamy elongate scales, elytra with smaller elongate scales and much longer erect spatulate scales, legs and antennae pale brown. Head broadest just behind weakly convex eyes, rostrum transverse and appearing constricted near the base, with rounded scrobes visible from above, antennae scape long and curved and evenly pubescent, two basal funicular segments elongate, the rest quadrate or slightly transverse, and the club narrow, long and pointed. Pronotum quadrate and rounded, sometimes with obscure anterior angles and so almost circular, the surface strongly and irregularly granular. Elytra broadly-oval with sloping shoulders and continuously rounded apically, surface convex and uneven but without raised striae or interstices. Striae mostly cryptic among the convex and uneven interstices but visible from a shallow angle, large spatulate scales usually arranged as single variously complete lines along the interstices, the outer rows plainly visible beyond the elytral outline. Legs long and robust-in life these weevils can run fast-with unarmed femora and tibiae expanded internally towards the apex. Claws not united at the base, smooth internally and without a basal tooth. Males may be distinguished by the concave apical abdominal sternite, in the female it is evenly convex.