Quite a pretty beetle with its colorful iridescence, the Larger Elm Leaf Beetle can be found in the eastern and southeastern US, from Florida west to Kansas and north to Pennsylvania. Elm is a favorite tree that this beetle feeds on, but it also skeletonizes the leaves of Hawthorn, Hazelnut, Flowering Dogwood, River Birch, Pecan and Plum. It’s most often spotted in hardwood forests and woodlands that have a lot of elm trees.

Adult Larger Elm Leaf Beetles chew holes in leaves and lay their eggs on the leaves. The larvae aren’t shy though and don’t hold back, they consume everything but the veins of leaves as they feed.

The Tachinid Fly, and parasitic wasps use Larger Elm Leaf Beetles as their hosts controlling to some extend their population.