Flea beetles are tiny, shiny beetles that jump like fleas when you disturb them. They are a common garden pest, chewing lots of small round holes in the leaves of vegetables and flowers, especially young seedlings. Flea beetles Quick Facts Common name Flea beetles Type Insect (leaf beetle) Diet Leaves of plants; larvae eat roots…
Diving beetles are fierce hunting beetles that live in ponds, lakes and slow streams. They belong to the family Dytiscidae, also called predaceous diving beetles, and both the adults and their larvae spend most of their lives underwater. The name Dytiscidae comes from a Greek word meaning “able to dive.” Diving beetles Quick Facts Common…
Darkling beetles are a huge family of beetles found almost everywhere on Earth, from deserts to forests to kitchen cupboards. They belong to the family Tenebrionidae, which has around 20,000 known species. The best-known darkling beetle is the mealworm beetle, whose larvae, mealworms, are sold as food for pets. Darkling beetle Quick Facts Common name…
Click beetles are long, slim beetles famous for a special trick: if one lands on its back, it can flip itself into the air with a loud “click.” They belong to the family Elateridae. Their larvae, called wireworms, live in the soil and can be serious garden and farm pests. Click beetles Quick Facts Common…
Cucumber beetles are small, brightly colored leaf beetles that feed on cucumber, squash, melon and pumpkin plants. Gardeners and farmers know them well, because both the adults and their larvae can damage crops. They belong to two related groups (genera) of leaf beetles, Acalymma and Diabrotica, in the family Chrysomelidae. Cucumber beetles Quick Facts Common…
The Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, is a large black-and-white beetle with extremely long antennae. It comes from China and Korea, where it is sometimes called the starry sky beetle because of the white spots on its shiny black back. Outside its home range it is a serious invasive pest that can kill healthy hardwood…
Wood-boring beetles are beetles whose larvae live inside wood and eat it. They are not one family but several, including bark beetles, metallic wood-borers, longhorn beetles and powderpost beetles. Most help forests by breaking down dead trees, but a few become serious pests. Wood-boring beetles Quick Facts Common name Wood-boring beetles Scientific name Coleoptera Kingdom…
Quick answer: Beetle diets vary widely by species. Many eat plants, leaves, pollen or wood, while others eat other insects, dung, fungi or dead animals. Ladybug beetles eat aphids, and dung beetles eat animal droppings. Beetles are insects that belong to the order Coleoptera, a name that means “sheath wing” in Greek. Their tough front…
“Water beetle” is the name for any beetle that spends part or all of its life living in water. Water beetles are not one family but many different groups, including diving beetles, water scavenger beetles and whirligig beetles. Water beetle Quick Facts Common name Water beetle Scientific name Dytiscidae Kingdom Animalia Phylum Arthropoda Class Insecta…
Weevils are beetles with a long snout, a bit like a tiny elephant’s trunk, with jaws at the very tip. They make up the superfamily Curculionoidea, one of the largest groups of animals on Earth, with more than 60,000 known species. Weevil Quick Facts Common name Weevil Type Insect (beetle superfamily) Diet Plants: leaves, roots,…
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