Air potato leaf beetle
Lilioceris cheni
The air potato leaf beetle is a small beetle with a big job. It munches on a climbing plant called air potato. Scientists brought it to Florida to help stop that plant from spreading everywhere.
Lives in
First from Asia, now also in Florida in the United States
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
It feeds on air potato plants, a kind of climbing vine.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Air potato leaf beetle about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The beetle and the air potato plant both first come from Asia.
2
In Florida the air potato plant spread so much that it became a problem, so biologists let these beetles loose there in 2012.
3
Its name comes from the plant it eats.
you asked
Most asked questions about Air potato leaf beetle
?Why were air potato leaf beetles brought to Florida?
To eat air potato plants, which were spreading too much there.
?What does the air potato leaf beetle eat?
Air potato plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lilioceris cheni
- Named by
- Gressitt and Kimoto
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Lilioceris cheni (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 Kghongaku. 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Stag beetle
Hercules beetle
Common glow-worm
Goliath beetle
Cockchafer
Mealworm beetle
Silverleaf whitefly
Gatekeeper butterfly
St Mark's fly
Valley carpenter bee
Privet hawk-moth
Marmalade hoverfly