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The Entiminae are a large subfamily in the weevil family Curculionidae, containing most of the short-nosed weevils, including such genera as Entimus, Otiorhynchus, Phyllobius, Sitona, and Pachyrhynchus. In comparison with their stunning diversity, only a few of these weevils are notorious pests of major economic importance. Entimines are commonly encountered in the field, including urban environments, and abundant in entomological collections.
Entimine weevils are primarily associated with Flowering plant, but there are also species recorded from Gymnosperm. They feed on Monocotyledon and a broad range of Dicotyledon plants, including members of the families Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Rutaceae, Solanaceae, and many more.
The most commonly seen/known species are usually those associated with vegetation, where there is a trend to find more abundance and less diversity in cultivated areas, whereas forested or less disturbed areas tend to have more diversity and less abundance; there is a lot of diversity represented in the soil and on leaf litter, which is often overlooked.
The most effective method for collecting entimines from vegetation would be using a beating sheet or by manual collecting; for soil entimines the best method would be leaf litter sifting.
The integument of entimines can be black, reddish, orange and even metallic in coloration. Many species of Entiminae are covered by scales arranged in a broad variety of patterns. Those scales bear three dimensional Photonic crystal within their lumen, which makes the scales iridescent.
Many species are flightless, which usually can be seen externally: the elytral shoulders (outer anterior corners of the Elytron) are reduced to absent in apterous and brachypterous forms and well-developed in species with well-developed wings.
A key to identify tribes is presented by Legalov.
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