Ten-lined June beetle
species of insect
The ten-lined June beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata), also known as the watermelon beetle, is a scarab beetle found in the western United States and Canada. The adults are attracted to light and feed on foliage, notably mature pine needles. They can make a hissing sound when touched or otherwise disturbed, which can resemble the hissing of a bat. This sound is made by their wings pushing down, forcing the air out between their wings and back. They can be an agricultural pest affecting a wide range of crops because their larvae feed on plant roots and can weaken or kill the plants.
Description
They are relatively large in size, some growing to sizes as large as 1.5 inches (3 cm) or more. As in other members of this genus, the males have large distinctive antennae consisting of several lamellate plates, which they close up when threatened. The antennae are used to detect pheromones emitted by the females. The wing covers (elytra) have four long white stripes and one short stripe each. The underside of the thorax is covered with brownish hairs.
“Ten-lined June beetle” enters the record as species of insect. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ten-lined, June and beetle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2378176. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ten-lined June beetle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.