CreatureData

Sweetpotato weevil

Cylas formicarius (Fabricius, 1798)

Status not recordedbeetles

The sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius) is a species in the family Brentidae, order Coleoptera. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the sweetpotato weevil

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the sweetpotato weevil live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The sweetpotato weevil is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the sweetpotato weevil as introduced in 5 countries, and flagged as invasive in 2 of them.

  1. Chinainvasive
  2. Japaninvasive
  3. Tonga
  4. United Arab Emirates
  5. United States

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the sweetpotato weevil endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the sweetpotato weevil classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderColeoptera
  5. familyBrentidae
  6. genusCylas
  7. SpeciesCylas formicarius (Fabricius, 1798)

Synonyms Attelabus formicarius, Brentus formicarius, Cylas turcipennis

Other names and names in other languages (13)
  • Sweet potatoe weevilEnglish
  • Charançon de la patate douceFrench
  • アリモドキゾウムシJapanese
  • AardappelsnuitkeverDutch
  • Долгоносик бататовыйRussian
  • ด้วงงวงมันเทศThai
  • 甘薯象Chinese
  • 甘薯小象Chinese
  • 甘薯小象甲Chinese
  • 甘薯蚁象Chinese
  • 甘薯蚁象甲Chinese
  • 甘薯锥象Chinese
  • 甘藷蟻象Chinese

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the sweetpotato weevil

Other species in the same genus Cylas.

CompareSweetpotato weevil vs Sweet potato weevilSweetpotato weevil vs Cylas aeneusSweetpotato weevil vs Cylas brunneusSweetpotato weevil vs Cylas coimbatorensis

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the sweetpotato weevil live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the sweetpotato weevil for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the sweetpotato weevil an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the sweetpotato weevil as invasive in 2 countries: China and Japan. It lists it as introduced in 5 in all.

What kind of animal is the sweetpotato weevil?

The sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius) belongs to the family Brentidae in the order Coleoptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

Embed a card for this animal on your own site

Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.

Preview the card

APA

CreatureData. (2026). Sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sweetpotato-weevil

MLA

“Sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sweetpotato-weevil.

BibTeX
@misc{sweetpotato_weevil_2026,
  title = {Sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sweetpotato-weevil},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}