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Merchant Grain Beetle
Oryzaephilus mercator
Oryzaephilus mercator, the merchant grain beetle, is a small, flattened beetle about 2.5mm in length. It is a common, worldwide pest of grain and grain products as well as fruit, chocolate, drugs, and tobacco. The biology of O. mercator is nearly identical with Oryzaephilus surinamensis (the sawtooth grain beetle). It can be differentiated from O. surinamensis by its larger eyes and by the shape of the head, the area just behind the eyes of O. mercator is narrower than that of O. surinamensis, which has a more triangular shaped head. Unlike O. surinamensis, adults are capable of flight.
From the article Oryzaephilus mercator on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
What it does
Females produce from 500 to 1000 eggs in a year which are deposited within a food source. The larvae are yellowish-white with a brown head and can reach a length of up to 3mm, larvae are active and move about through a food source as they feed. Larvae molt two to four times before pupating in a cocoon-like structure made by joining together small grain kernels and pieces of kernels. The total life cycle takes approximately 27–50 days.
Wikipedia: “Life cycle”
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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Every page naming Oryzaephilus mercator in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 210455.