Alfalfa weevil
The alfalfa weevil is a tiny brown beetle with a short, wide snout. It has a dark stripe down the middle of its back. Its larvae are green with a black head and no legs.
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Fun facts
The mother lays up to 25 eggs inside an alfalfa stem.
Its larva spins a white cocoon about the size of a pea.
In hot summers the grown-ups can take a long rest and slow their bodies down.
Tiny wasps lay eggs inside its larvae, which helps farmers keep it under control.
The cocoon of one of those wasps can jump a few centimetres when it is disturbed.
Most asked questions about Alfalfa weevil
?Is the alfalfa weevil harmful?
Not to people. It damages alfalfa crops by eating the leaves.
?How big is the alfalfa weevil?
It is tiny, only about half a centimetre long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hypera postica
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Curculionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
Where the facts come from
- Hypera postica (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 AfroBrazilian. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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