University of Alberta Museums Search

Say (1831) noted that adult specimens are large (approximately 8.8 mm), with underlying cuticle that is pitch black and covered with numerous short, white hairs. The general body dimensions are fairly ovate in dorsal view (comparatively short and stout), with a tubular, arched rostrum, and a head that is slightly constricted between the eyes. The prothorax is wider than it is long, is strongly rounded at its front, and has fairly rounded sides. The medial angle (at the back of the thorax, along the midline) is depressed, and a broad and shallow longitudinal depression arises just anterior to the medial angle, fading as it heads forward. Punctures on the cuticle are small and dense on the sides of the rostrum's base, comparatively small and dense across the thorax, and larger on elytra, but progressively smaller and constrained to longitudinal grooves near the posterior tip of the elytra. Say's original diagnosis has been supplemented with a few characters suggested by LeConte, (1876) in the identification above.

Females oviposit individual eggs into notches that they create in stems (Milne and Milne, 1980). Larvae burrow into stems, forming gall-like galleries where they then pupate (Blatchley and Leng, 1916). The adults emerge to feed on the soft tissues of various plants; often different plants from those used by larvae (Anderson, 1987). There appears to be only one generation per year for this species. Essig (1958) stated that this species was quite similar to Lixus parcus, but was found to inhabit the eastern US as well as Texas and Colorado. This similarity would suggest that it too pupates late within the summer, with adult abundances occurring within the fall.

Some adult specimens in the Strickland Museum have been collected from the foliage of thistles (in the vicinity of Medicine Hat, Alberta). This species has also been reared from the foliage of Polygonum amphibium (water smartweed)(Webster, 1892). Otherwise, they are known from knotweed as larvae and pupae, and from a wide range of plants as feeding adults.