Waterlily leaf beetle
The waterlily leaf beetle is a small yellow-brown beetle that lives on water lilies. It and its larvae munch the floating lily leaves. The chewed leaves soon turn brown and rotten.
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Fun facts
Its eggs are opal-white little balls, laid in bunches of 10 to 15 on the parts of the plant that stick out of the water.
Young larvae are black-green, and they change their skin three times as they grow.
The pupa is orange-yellow and sticks to a lily leaf for about a week.
In warm lakes it can have four generations a year, and one female can lay 80 to 120 eggs.
In winter the grown-up beetles rest on the shore.
Most asked questions about Waterlily leaf beetle
?Is the waterlily leaf beetle harmful?
Not to people. It harms water lilies, because the chewed leaves turn brown and rot.
?What does the waterlily leaf beetle eat?
Water lily leaves. Both the beetles and the larvae eat them.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Galerucella nymphaeae
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
- Also known as
- Water-lily beetle, Water lily leaf beetle
Where the facts come from
- Galerucella nymphaeae (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 Andreas Rusch. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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