Attelabidae

a family of herbivorous beetles closely related to the weevils (Curculionidae). The body length is 2–15 mm. The coloring is usually bright, with a metallic sheen, the most common colors being red, green, dark blue, bronze, more rarely black, and sometimes mottled. The larvae are white and legless and are C-shaped. They develop in slowly withering or rotting plant tissues. Adults instinctively care for their young.

The Attelabidae are divided into two groups, according to the way in which the female prepares parts of plants for the larvae. The first group consists of Rhynchites and closely related genera. The females deposit the eggs in holes that they bore in juicy parts of plants (young shoots, buds, fruits), which the larvae later feed on. This group includes many pests of fruit crops, such as Caenorhinus pauxillus and Rhynchites auratus. Females of the second group deposit each egg in leaf tissue, which they roll into a sturdy tube, and usually chew through the principal vein of the leaf, after which it withers.

The most common representatives of Attelabidae are Apoderus coryl, Attelabus nitens, Byctiscus betulae, and Deporaus betulae. There are approximately 1,300 species, distributed mainly in tropical forest regions. The USSR has as many as 100 species, mainly in the southern Far East but also in the Caucasus and Middle Asia.