Red palm weevil
The red palm weevil is a big rusty red beetle with a long snout. It comes from tropical Asia but has spread to many warm countries. Its fat larvae dig long tunnels inside palm trees, which is very bad news for the trees.
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Fun facts
Its larvae can dig tunnels up to 1 metre long inside a palm trunk.
Enough tunnels can make the whole palm tree weak until it dies.
In Southeast Asia its larvae are a tasty treat that people eat.
It reached Spain in 1994 and France in 2006.
Most are rusty red, but there are many colour forms, and some were once thought to be different kinds.
Most asked questions about Red palm weevil
?Is the red palm weevil dangerous?
Not to people. But it is one of the worst pests for palm trees.
?How big is the red palm weevil?
About 2 to 4 centimetres long.
?What does the red palm weevil eat?
Its larvae eat the inside of palm tree trunks.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rhynchophorus ferrugineus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Curculionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America
- Also known as
- Asian palm weevil, Sago palm weevil
Where the facts come from
- Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (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 Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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.
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