the Palearctic from western Europe to Japan
Fine-art photographic collection
Galeruca tanaceti
A leaf beetle whose pregnant female becomes almost unrecognisably swollen before sealing her eggs for winter.
About this species
Galeruca tanaceti(Linnaeus, 1758)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Galeruca tanaceti is a broad-ranging Palearctic leaf beetle. Adults and larvae feed on many herbaceous plants, while females lay conspicuous egg masses that survive winter beneath a protective coating.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Chrysomelidae · Galeruca
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
the Palearctic from western Europe to JapanBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Grassland, field margins, ruderal vegetation and other open habitats with broadleaved herbs.
Adults are active from summer into autumn; eggs overwinter.
Leaves of many herbaceous plants.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Before laying, the female abdomen can expand into a huge egg-filled mass several times broader than the thorax.
She covers the egg batch with a hard protective secretion; the embryos remain inside through winter and hatch the following spring.
Even that armour is breached by the minute parasitoid wasp Oomyzus galerucivorus, whose larvae develop inside the beetle eggs.