Family: Curculionidae
Subfamily: Brachycerinae
Length: 5.0-8.5 mm
The Clover Leaf Weevil is a European introduction into North America and now ranges widely in the United States, and is also found in Canada. It is common in West Virginia.
The species boasts scales in various tones of browns and grays. The rostrum is not especially long, measuring about 2/3 the length of the pronotum.
One unusual feature of this and other members of the genus Hypera is the larvae’s habit of feeding externally on the clover plants rather than safely inside the stems. This feeding takes places at night.
Hypera punctata is one of several members of the genus that are of economic importance, reducing yields of the clovers grown for forage or fodder.
Hypera zoilus may be the more accuate name for this species. A French publication reported in 1954 that Hypera punctata is a synonym ofHypera zoilus. Christopher Majka (2007) comments that the synonomy is well-known in Europe, where the name Hypera zoilus is used, but that the synonomy has "only slowly been adopted in North America."
Left: a lateral view of Hypera punctata.
Insects of West Virginia
