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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Curculionoidea » Leaf Rolling Weevils (Attelabidae) » Thief Weevils (Pterocolinae) » Pterocolus

Genus Pterocolus

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Range · Life Cycle · Works Cited
Pterocolus ovatus (Fabricius, 1801) - Pterocolus ovatus Pterocolus ovatus (Fabricius) - Pterocolus ovatus Attelabid - Pterocolus ovatus Thief Weevil? - Pterocolus ovatus Pterocolus ovatus Pterocolus ovatus Pterocolus ovatus Thief Weevil - Pterocolus ovatus
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 Attelabidae (Leaf Rolling Weevils)
Subfamily Pterocolinae (Thief Weevils)
Genus Pterocolus
Explanation of Names
Pterocolus Say 1831
ptero meaning "wings" and colus meaning "inhabiting"(1)
See life cycle for why they are called "thief beetles"
Numbers
a single species in our area, ~20 spp. total(2)
Range
neotropical group ranging into e. NA north to ON and southwest to TX-AZ(2)
Life Cycle
Can confiscate the nurseries of other weevils. The females wait in the wings while the mother weevil completes her leaf rolling and egg laying. Then the weevil thief moves in, devours the eggs, and replaces them with her own.(1)
Works Cited
1.Hidden Company that Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips
James B. Nardi. 2023. Princeton University Press.
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.
Contributed by Jim McClarin on 20 February, 2008 - 7:54am
Additional contributions by v belov, Marci Hess
Last updated 23 September, 2023 - 10:11am

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