M. anceps has been found on damaged pineapple fruits in an abandoned pineapple field in Peru (R.D. Cave, pers. comm.) .
M. ciliatus has been reported from Aechmea bracteata in Veracruz, Mexico (Zaragoza 1974).
M. cincinnatus is known from Vriesia werckleana in northwestern Panama (Frank, unpublished).
M. dimidiatipennis has been reported to attack cultivated pineapple in northern South America where it is native (Salas et al. 1993, O'Brien 1994). It also has been reported from Indonesia, where pineapple and ornamental bromeliads have been imported for cultivation.
M. flavopictus has been discovered in Tillandsia caput-medusae and T. velickiana in Guatemala (D. Cathcart, pers. comm.). It was also found in Tillandsia bulbosa in the Chiquibul Forest and in Tillandsia xerographica at Mountain Pine Ridge, Belize in November 2002 (Cave unpublished).
M. hemipterus is a widespread neotropical weevil that attacks bananas, sugarcane and palms. It was first detected in Florida in 1984 and it has spread northward from Dade County. In August 2000, two adults were found in a rotting pineapple plant with fruit in Martin County, but it is not likely to attack other bromeliads.
M. nudiventris was found in Tillandsia bulbosa in the Chiquibul Forest of Belize in November 2002 (Cave unpublished).
M. quadrilineatus is one of the species that has been intercepted, by USDA inspectors, in shipments of Tillandsia spp. originating from Central America and Mexico. In Chiapas, Mexico, it has been reported from Tillandsia guatemalensis, Tillandsia sp., Vriesia chiapensis, and Billbergia sp. (Zaragoza 1971, 1974, Lucas 1975).
M. ritchiei is known as a minor pest of pineapple grown under shaded conditions in Jamaica. The threat that it would arrive in Florida and harm Florida's pineapple crop was one of the reasons for the establishment in 1915 of the Florida State Plant Board (which later became the Division of Plant Industry of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) (Newell 1917).
M. rugipectus was found in a Catopsis (either C. hahnii or C. morreniana) on Cerro Uyuca, a cloud forest in Honduras, in September 1998 (Frank unpublished). Another was found in Tillandsia guatemalensis in Guatemala in July 2000 (Larson unpublished). These are new country records for this weevil. However, finding of these adults does not prove that the larvae develop in these bromeliads.
M. sellatus is one of the species that has been intercepted, by USDA inspectors, in shipments of Tillandsia spp. originating from Central America. In Chiapas, Mexico, it has been reported from Tillandsia guatemalensis (Lucas 1975, Frank & Thomas 1994b). In Belize, it was found in Tillandsia bulbosa in the Chiquibul Forest and Mountain Pine Ridge in November 2002 (Cave unpublished).
M. mosieri is a small weevil, with adults typically less than half the length of M. callizona. It is native to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and perhaps to southern Florida (Barber 1920). Very few specimens have been collected in Florida, and the only reliable host-plant records from Florida are the native Tillandsia balbisiana, T. setacea, T. simulata, T. variabilis, and very small specimens of T. utriculata. It also has been seen to attack various small imported Tillandia, such as T. bergeri (Frank 1999d). It has been found in Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, Sarasota, St. Lucie, and Osceola counties. The reasons for its restricted distribution in Florida are unclear; only a concerted effort to collect many living specimens (more especially larvae) may reveal whether it has a specialized parasitoid.
We have no host records at the species level for the remaining 5 species.
Anderson (2002) described and illustrated some new Metamasius spp. from Costa Rica and Panama. One adult of one of them (M. leopardinus Anderson) was collected from a bromeliad in Costa Rica, which is not proof that its larvae eat bromeliads.
revised 10/03
