Family: Attelabidae (leaf-rolling weevils)

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Ecdysozoa > Panarthropoda > Tritocerebra > Arthopoda > Mandibulata > Atelocerata > Panhexapoda > Hexapoda > Insecta (insects) > Dicondyla > Pterygota > Metapterygota > Neoptera > Eumetabola > Holometabola > Coleoptera (beetles) > Polyphaga > Curculionoidea

Small beetles (2-8mm), easily recognisable by their square elytra that do not cover the last abdominal segment. The body is sometimes covered with short spines and is usually black, red-brown or red-brown and black and sometimes with a metallic lustre. They are slow moving but good flyers. Adults feed on leaves and buds and they develop either in leaf rolls or leaf mines, stems or flower heads. The females lay the eggs in a leaf roll or a slit in a leaf. The leaf then wilts and falls of and the larvae then feeds on the decaying tissue. Pupation then takes place in the soil.

Some Attelabidae species

Parapoderus submarginatus, 6mm. [image by M. Picker & C. Griffiths ©, from Field Guide to Insects of South Africa, used with permission].	Parapoderus nigripennis, 6mm. [image by M. Picker & C. Griffiths ©, from Field Guide to Insects of South Africa, used with permission].

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