The Hollyhock Weevil and Creation
On 2026-09-14, a coworker showed me a bag of hollyhock seeds he had picked on one of his walks. I looked closely and saw little tiny bugs moving around. I took out my phone and took a picture zoomed in to get a better look:
These things were tiny, no longer than 1/8th of an inch. A prompt to an AI model quickly told me what they were: Rhopalapion longirostre, commonly known as the hollyhock weevil.
I read up on them on various sites:
- https://www.gbif.org/taxon/SL735
- https://bugswithmike.com/guide/arthropoda/hexapoda/insecta/coleoptera/polyphaga/curculionoidea/brentidae/apioninae/rhopalapion/longirostre
- https://gardenerspath.com/plants/flowers/hollyhock-weevils/
I was amazed to find out that this bug is 100% reliant on plants in the mallow family, especially hollyhocks.
This kind of struck me: God's creation is amazingly intricate. The fact that there's such a bug just astounded me. It made me think of a principle: God's Glory is Revealed in Extreme Ecological Specificity. I'm certain this isn't the only example.
This level of specificity also made me think about how Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos Points to Intelligent Design. What could be more specific than the very things that make up matter and the universe?
Usually, I'm thinking more on a macro scale about how Creation Inspires Wonder and Awe with clouds, trees, mountains, and lakes. But this was a good reminder to look closer.