Greyback cane beetle
The greyback cane beetle is a white beetle with black speckles from Australia. It lives in sugarcane fields. Its grubs eat the roots of the sugarcane underground, which makes farmers very unhappy.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Cane toads were brought to Australia to eat these beetles. But the toads liked other insects better and became a big problem themselves.
The mum lays her eggs 20 to 45 centimetres deep in the soil, near the tallest canes.
A mum can lay up to three batches of 20 to 30 eggs each.
The grubs eat roots for 3 to 4 months, then dig deeper to turn into beetles.
In the Philippines it is called salagubang.
Most asked questions about Greyback cane beetle
?Why were cane toads brought to Australia?
To eat greyback cane beetles in sugarcane fields. Sadly the toads ate other things instead and became pests.
?What does the greyback cane beetle eat?
The beetles eat sugarcane leaves, and the grubs eat sugarcane roots.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dermolepida albohirtum
- Named by
- Waterhouse, 1875
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Asia
- Also known as
- Cane beetle, Salagubang
Where the facts come from
- Dermolepida albohirtum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Donald Hobern. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
Stag beetle
Hercules beetle
Common glow-worm
Goliath beetle
Cockchafer
Mealworm beetle
Migratory locust
Common rough woodlouse
Brown centipede
Evergreen bagworm
Spanish slug
Grove snail