Yellow Poplar Weevil: Appearance, Territory, Damage and Life Cycle

Latin Name: Odontopus Calceatus

Appearance: The tulip-tree leafminer, magnolia leafminer, and sassafras weevil are all names for the yellow poplar weevil. The buds and foliage are consumed by these little, black, chunky weevils. Their grubs are small, white, and legless, and they mine in the leaves. The adults spend the winter in the leaf litter underneath the host trees. They fly aloft on warm spring days to dine on buds and leaves.

Hosts Plants:  Yellow poplar weevils consume and mine the leaves of the tulip-tree (yellow poplar), magnolia, sassafras, and sweet bay. Adults eat the leaves, generally just removing the bottom epidermis. This feeding results in chlorotic areas and severely damaged trees that seem burnt. Feeding by freshly emerging weevils can be intense, resulting in premature leaf drop. Their damage is unattractive, but it is unlikely to have an impact on the tree’s general health.

Territory: Odontopus Calceatus is a weevil that is found over most of the eastern and southeastern United States. Its range extends from Massachusetts in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River in the west.

Damage Insect Cause: Adult feeding results in rice-shaped holes around 1/16 inch in diameter. Mines are formed by larval feeding, generally two per leaf. If they are both on the same side of the midrib, one is large and the other is little. Both mines grow normally if the beetle lays eggs on separate sides of the midrib. Yellow poplar weevils should be controlled by most pesticides designated for home landscaping use. Concerned homeowners may find solace in the knowledge that yellow poplar weevils are unlikely to inflict lasting harm to afflicted trees, and that notable outbreaks are unlikely to occur more than two years in a row due to parasites that pile up and limit the number.

Life History and Habits: Weevil’s assault swollen buds before they rupture and leave puncture-like eating scars. Mating and oviposition take place between May and early June. The eggs are put in a quarter-inch portion of the midrib on the underside of the leaves. This damages that portion of the midrib, causing the leaf to break over in many circumstances. The freshly born larvae travel from the midrib into the mesophyll, highlighting the midrib damage. The larvae pupate in the mine’s infected region. Early in June, the first adults appear. The weevils then eat vigorously on the leaves until mid-summer, when they start a phase of aestivation that lasts until diapause in winter. Adults spend the winter in leaf litter. Each year, one generation is born.