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Glite Dictionary
🐞 A fruit beetle 🎭 A Roman play
curculio

curculio

1 9.9
A small beetle that makes holes in fruit or nuts and damages crops
  • noun
  • /kɜrˈkuːli.oʊ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : curculión
  • To prevent curculio damage, it's essential to inspect fruit regularly and apply the right pesticides.
  • plum curculio
  • curculio can scar apples
  • curculio besieged fruit

Examples

  • In mid-1852, the Bedford orchard was in good shape, with only two potential issues: the fruit suffered from curculio (a fruit-destroying bug that is currently classified as a weevil), and the orchard was not generating sufficient revenue.

    Academic text (2015)

  • The curculio beetle damaged the apples by boring holes into them.

  • Farmers often struggle with curculio infestations that threaten their fruit crops.

Synonyms

weevil
vscurculio
15 7.0

A small beetle with a long snout that eats plants or stored grain

focuses on damaging produce by boring into fruits nuts and crops
snout beetle
vscurculio
7.6

A small beetle with a long nose that often damages crops like grain and nuts

damages fruit nuts and crops by boring into them

Surface Forms

curculio singular
curculios plural

Etymology

Curculio comes from Latin and originally meant a small beetle called a 'weevil'. So curculio today is the name for those tiny, fruit-eating beetles that bore into apples, nuts, and other crops.