Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Cleonis piger - Large Thistle Weevil

Listronotus ? - Cleonis piger Large Weevil - Cleonis piger Beetle 1 - Cleonis piger _GY42780 - Bug 1 - Cleonis piger Snout Beetle- Dryophthorus? - Cleonis piger weevil sp. - Cleonis piger weird beetle - Cleonis piger Coleoptera. Curculionidae. - Cleonis piger
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Curculionoidea
Family Curculionidae (Snout and Bark Beetles)
Subfamily Lixinae
Tribe Cleonini (Cylindrical Weevils)
Genus Cleonis
Species piger (Large Thistle Weevil)
Other Common Names
Sluggish Weevil
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cleonus piger, Cleonis pigra
Explanation of Names
Cleonis pigra (Scopoli 1763)
Size
♂ 7.5-13.4 mm, ♀ 11.4-14.8 mm(1)
Identification
Elytra with double V-pattern. Rostrum with three sulci. Freshly emerged specimens covered with yellow, dusty secretion.
Range
ne. US & se. Canada, native to the Palaearctic (common across Eurasia), adventive in NA (2)
Habitat
farmlands, meadows
Food
hosts: various Asteraceae, incl. (within the native range) thistle (Cirsium), plumeless thistle (Carduus), Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus), Diffuse Knapweed (Centaurea diffusa), Bull Cottonthistle (Onopordum tauricum)(3)
Life Cycle
Larvae feed on roots and rhizomes
Remarks
introduced into NA from Europe prior to 1919(1)
larvae parasitized by Acaenitus dubitator (Ichneumonidae) (Shaw & Wahl 1989)
Works Cited
1.Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography of New World weevils traditionally of the tribe Cleonini (Col.: Curculionidae:Cleoninae)
R.S. Anderson (1988). 1987. Quaestiones Entomologicae 23: 431-709.
2.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
3.Wild plants and their associated insects in the Palearctic Region, primarily Europe and the Middle East
Campobasso G., Colonnelli E., Knutson L., Terragitti G., Cristofaro M., eds. 1999. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, ARS–147.