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

Species Plagiodera versicolora - Imported Willow Leaf Beetle

Leaf Beetle - Plagiodera versicolora leaf beetle - Plagiodera versicolora leaf beetle - Plagiodera versicolora blue beetle - unident - Plagiodera versicolora Plagiodera versicolora? - Plagiodera versicolora Beetle - Plagiodera versicolora leaf beetle - Plagiodera versicolora leaf beetle - Plagiodera versicolora
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Longhorn and Leaf Beetles)
Family Chrysomelidae (Leaf Beetles)
Subfamily Chrysomelinae
Tribe Chrysomelini
Subtribe Chrysomelina
Genus Plagiodera
Species versicolora (Imported Willow Leaf Beetle)
Other Common Names
Willow Leaf Beetle
Explanation of Names
Plagiodera versicolora (Laicharting 1781)
versicolora 'variably colored'
Size
2.5‒4.5 mm(1)
Range
east of the Mississippi R. (NS‒AB to SC‒TN‒IA) - Map (2)(3)(4), Holarctic(5)
Food
Willow (Salix) and poplar (Populus) leaves
Life Cycle
Hibernating adults emerge in the spring; 3 generations, usually the third one hibernates. There may be a fourth generation.
Remarks
considered a pest • Produces a mixture of cyclopentanoid monoterpenes for defense, mostly to deter birds(6)
Print References
Wade M.J. (1994) The biology of the imported willow leaf beetle, Plagiodera versicolora (Laicharting). Novel aspects of the biology of Chrysomelidae, Ser. Entomol. 50: 541‒547 (Abstract)
Internet References
Fact sheets: Ostry et al. (1989)NatureSpot(1)