Pale green weevil - Polydrusus impressifrons

We were camped just outside of Waterton National Park at a place called Crooked Creek Campground.  It was a five minute drive to the park and turned out to be a great launching point for our adventures.  I took some time while at the camp to look for any interesting insects to photograph and I came across a small, light green beetle.  I used my macro equipment to capture images and then came upon more of them that were engaged with mating (see below).

The insects were always found on leaves of the same kind of plant.  They tend to prefer shrubs belonging to willow (Silex) or poplar (Populus).  They will eat the leaves of fruit trees and can damage young trees.  The same is true for the grubs (larval form of beetle).  They burrow in the soil and feed on the roots of preferred vegetation.  Their presence does not usually adversely affect the shrubs or trees themselves unless the plants are young.

These weevils are not native to North America.  They arrived in North America in the early 1900s and have spread half way across the continent since then.  They have not yet made it past the rocky mountains, although populations have been found in Oregon.

The beetle is a type of weevil.  I found this interesting because most weevils I have found have a long snout with antennae sprouting off somewhere in the middle of it.  I could not find it in my field guides because it did not occur to me that they were of that group of beetles.  In order to determine the species, I had to send a photo to Google Lens which came back with a few possibilities.  Eventually I narrowed down the list to the one I am currently discussing.  Given that 30% of all the species are beetles, it is not surprising that it wasn’t a simple task.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com