Weevil

Weevils are beetles within the Superfamily Curculionoidea. There are more than 60,000 species of weevil and most species are less than 10mm in length. Most species are herbivores and some are pests of economic importance.

A characteristic shared by many weevils is a long curved snout. At the end of this snout are the mandibles. Some species possess grooves along the side of the snout in to which their antennae fold so as to keep the out of the way when the weevil pushes its snout in to a food source.

A photograph of an adult Acorn weevil illustrating the curved snout possessed by many weevils.
Photograph by Clinton and Charles Robertson licensed under Creative Commons.

Related terms

• Click beetle
• Coleoptera
• Coleopterist
• Darkling beetle
• Goliath beetle
• Rhinoceros beetle
• Scarab

Related pages on this web site

• Beetles - Order Coleoptera

See other words beginning with W