Leaf serves as container: red oak roller weevil

Female red oak roller weevils create packages to hold their eggs by cutting and rolling oak leaves into tubes.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

	Maintain physical integrity >
	Protect from biotic factors >
	Animals

Biomimetic Application Ideas

Solving resource or design needs by taking a new look at what materials are available locally and working with those as a design parameter; cellulosic packaging (not from corn!).

> Visit strategy page

[Collapse all sections] Summary

"A weevil, the red oak roller, uses a leaf as a container for its young. It cuts the leaf transversely across the middle to the central rib, working first from one side then the other. It folds together the two quarters nearer the tip over the midrib and then rolls them into a double thickness tube. In that it lays its eggs." (Attenborough 1995:156)

About the inspiring organism

Attelabus nitens
Attelabus nitens Seidl., 1891

Some organism data provided by: WTaxa: Electronic Catalogue of Weevil names (Curculionoidea)
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Solving resource or design needs by taking a new look at what materials are available locally and working with those as a design parameter; cellulosic packaging (not from corn!).

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Raw materials, packaging

References

Attenborough, D. 1995. The Private Life of Plants: A Natural History of Plant Behavior. London: BBC Books. 320 p.

Leaf serves as container: red oak roller weevil

Content tools

Curator of this page

Comments