Weevil

Cool! That would explain why we couldnt find a match!

...but then I would have also fallen for Trichapion nigrum....

Wow karen I just had a look at Ischnopterapion virens and I would have fallen for that so easily. It's a good thing to have an oxyjack around. Looking forward to finding out what this one is.

You're welcome, wish I could have gotten you closer to the correct ID. At least we know the subfamily, that's something. =)

I'm sure it isn't the species you originally had as the ID, the punctation on the elytra was wrong. And it lacked the white hair-like scales bestween the grooves. I just checked all of the Baridine tribes and genera on bugguide, and they didn't have your weevil, but maybe one of their weevil people (2 of the world's leading experts chime in there from time to time) will recognize it. Unfortunately, your picture is blurry in places where it would be very nice to see some detail. There's a suggestion of texture on the pronotum, but I can't clearly see what that texture is. That can make a difference when determining a weevil species. (I studied weevils in grad school, can you tell?) =)

It looks like your guess wasn't far off, it's in the same subfamily!

I take it all back... my initial ID, that is. Now that I've looked at it more closely, I'm convinced that it's not a Brentid, but a true weevil (Curculionidae). The body shape is very similar to the pear-shaped weevils, but now I'm convinced it actually belongs in the subfamily Baridinae. I'm used to seeing large (over 2 cm) specimens from that group, but I checked, and sure enough, there are tiny ones (2-3 mm) found on flowers. I'm looking through the different tribes now trying to find a likely candidate. I'll update my ID when I find something.

I just took a closer look at Ischnopterapion virens, and I'm pretty sure it's not the same weevil. Yours has distinctly elbowed anntennae, with a pronounced scape (the long segment closest to the head). The other weevil has many similarly sized antennal segments. Sorry. We'll have to keep looking.

Yes, those guys can be really tiny, there is a common hollyhock weevil on the west coast that's around 7mm with including snout, and the snout is half the body length easily. These weevils are sexually dimorphic, the females have much longer snouts than the males. Their ovipositors are the same length as their snout, they chew out a tunnel in plant stems until they can't reach any deeper, then turn around and lay their eggs in the tunnel. If you recall green scales then it very well could be Ischnopterapion virens, but I'm hesitant to positively ID something that small unless I can look at it under a microscope and then compare it to identified specimens. I can see that it will be very hard to get accurate IDs for the smaller arthropods on Project Noah. The plants, mammals, birds and such are much easier, as are the moths and butterflies, and the bigger beetles.

The white hairs look right. Did yours also have small iridescent green scales? It's sometimes hard to pinpoint to ID with photos, it's so hard to see the necessary details.

This is an Apionine Brentid weevil. Great picture!

Wow!

Lovely shot at 3mm Karen. Did you get a new camera recently :)?