Nodding thistle receptacle weevil
The nodding thistle receptacle weevil is a small black weevil with a short snout. It is covered in a coat of mottled black and yellowish hairs. Its larvae live inside thistle flower heads and eat the seeds.
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Fun facts
A female lays over 100 eggs on thistle flower heads and covers them with chewed plant mush to hide them.
The larva builds a hard little room inside the flower head and turns into a weevil there.
People brought it to the United States in 1969 to stop weedy thistles from spreading.
Later it also started eating native thistles, so in many places people are no longer allowed to release it.
Most asked questions about Nodding thistle receptacle weevil
?What does the nodding thistle receptacle weevil eat?
Thistles. The larvae eat the seeds inside the flower heads.
?Why were these weevils brought to America?
To stop weedy thistles, because the larvae destroy the seeds.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rhinocyllus conicus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Curculionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America
Where the facts come from
- Rhinocyllus conicus (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 Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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