 | Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil - Polydrusus sericeus Order: Coleoptera (Beetles) / Family: Curculionidae - (Weevils or Snout Beetles) Live adult weevils photographed at West Chicago Prairie, DuPage County IL on June 10, 2005. Size: Male = 5mm Female = 7mm [Cirrus Home] [Beetles Main Page Graphics] [Beetles Table of Contents] |
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| Polydrusus sericeus, also known as the green immigrant leaf weevil, is sometimes found in large numbers in nurseries in the late spring / early summer. This weevil is European in origin and first found in New York in 1906. They are reported to feed on leaves of trees such as apple, birch, oak, pear, poplar, strawberry and willow. They are rarely considered a pest. Their feeding can be more of a problem on smaller, liner-sized plant material. Their larvae feed on roots. There are over 35,000 species of weevil, with more than 2,500 species in the United States and Canada alone. All are strictly herbivorous. Weevil is the common name for beetles of the snout beetle family Curculionidae. The mouthparts of snout beetles are modified into down-curved snouts, or beaks, adapted for boring into plants; the jaws are at the end of the snout. The bent antennae usually project from the middle of the snout. In the case of the acorn weevils, the snout can actually be longer than the body. |
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 Green Immigrant Weevil |
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| Acorn weevils have snouts with small, saw-like teeth at the very end. There are two types, or genera: the long-snouted acorn weevils (genus Curculio) and the short-snouted ones (genus Conotrachelus). The longsnouted acorn weevil's snout may be equal to or greater than the length of its body. These specimens are, of course, the long-snouted variety. |
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