Butterbur weevil
Liparus glabrirostris
The butterbur weevil is one of the biggest weevils in Europe. Weevils are beetles with a long snout. This one is black with little light brown spots, and when it gets scared it plays dead.
Lives in
The mountains of Central Europe, from Spain to Ukraine, in woods along streams
Length
1.4 to 1.9 cm (0.55 to 0.75 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its babies grow up on butterbur, a big-leaved plant that grows near mountain streams.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 3 grains of rice in a row🍽️could run across a dinner table in 20 seconds
How big is Butterbur weevil compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Butterbur weevil about 0.18 km/h (0.11 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
When something frightens it, it lies still as if it were dead until the danger is gone.
2
It got its name from butterbur, the plant its larvae like most.
3
It is seen most often in the Alps and the Tatra mountains.
4
Fine light brown hairs grow on its legs and head.
you asked
Most asked questions about Butterbur weevil
?How big is the butterbur weevil?
About 14 to 19 millimetres long, which is big for a weevil.
?Why does the butterbur weevil play dead?
Lying still fools enemies that look for moving prey.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Liparus glabrirostris
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Curculionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Liparus glabrirostris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Clemens Stockner. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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