Okay, I have looked into the Lemna weevils some more. The only information I could come up with was a European species, exotic to the United States, named Tanysphyrus lemnae. The USGS fact sheet on it was contradictory: there was a map showing the weevil in New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the text below the map described the same range; but in the next section was a reference to its occurrence in Florida on water lettuce, even though the map did not show any occurrences there. Here is the link to the USGS fact sheet:
It is also mentioned on the Aquatic Insects of Alberta website, but I found no references to its occurrence in South Carolina. I did, however, find numerous references to other weevil species that feed on aquatic ferns, Salvinia and Azolla, but these seem to be aquatic fern specialists and I would not expect to see them on Lemna.
How should I proceed?
Jason Hernandez
Naturalist-at-Large
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