3

enter image description hereHi, just found this bug and was curious if it was a tick or a beetle? Found on a bedroom pillow, Quebec, Canada, about 1cm long Thank you!!

Improve this question
2
  • Not a tick, ticks have 8 legs. Could you give some scale and idea of where you found it? Judging by antenna it looks like a beetle
    – BirdNerd
    Aug 11, 2020 at 17:08
  • There is also a species-identification tag in Biology SE and I've had great results myself. But you need to give an approximate location where in the world you are, and also mention the approximate size! Is this about 1 cm long? More? Less?
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2020 at 22:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

This is most definitely a beetle. All adult and nymph stage ticks have 8 legs, although larval stages have 6 legs. Larval stages are tiny (~2 mm), so this is not a larval tick, despite the 6 legs.

So, what is it? Well, out of the many many species of beetle (~400,000 species), there is one very large group, of which this is almost certainly a member - and that is the weevil superfamily (still 97,000 species). The distinguishing feature from other groups of beetles is the elongated rostrum or snout, which can't be seen in your photo, but creates a distinctive head shape.. Closer than that I can not work out which one it is - would need a picture of the colours and many other identifying features to work that out. There are however some common species, such as the clover root weevil that are fairly widespread. Some other common ones in Canada can be found here

Improve this answer
1
  • It reminds me of a carrot wevil and I wondered if it's head was just tilted down in the top-down photo in the question, making the rostrum look shorter.
    – uhoh
    Aug 12, 2020 at 19:19

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.