Elm leaf beetle
The elm leaf beetle is a small yellow to green beetle with a dark stripe along the edge of each wing case. It lives on elm trees and loves to eat their leaves. In winter it often sneaks into houses to keep warm.
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Fun facts
One mother beetle can lay about 800 yellow eggs.
She lays them in little clusters under elm leaves.
It wakes up in spring when the weather gets warmer than about 11 °C.
When an elm loses its leaves to the beetles, it often grows new ones, but the next beetles eat those too.
In Europe a tiny wasp lays its eggs in the beetle's eggs, which keeps the beetles in check.
Most asked questions about Elm leaf beetle
?Why are elm leaf beetles in my house?
They look for warm hiding places to spend the winter, and houses are perfect.
?Are elm leaf beetles harmful?
They are harmless to people, but they can weaken elm trees by eating their leaves.
?How big is the elm leaf beetle?
It is about 6 to 8 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Xanthogaleruca luteola
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Elm leaf beetle (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 Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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