The adults are usually between 3 and 4. 6 mm long, with a freezing brown rice snout.
It is easily confused with the similar looking maize weevil. Adult rice weevils are able to fly, and can live for up to two years. Females lay 2-6 eggs per day and up to 300 over their lifetime. The female uses strong mandibles to chew a hole into a grain kernel after which she deposits a single egg within the hole, sealing it with secretions from her ovipositor. A synthetic version is available which attracts rice weevils, maize weevils and grain weevils. Females produce a pheromone which attracts only males. Its gammaproteobacterial symbiont Candidatus Sodalis pierantonius str.
SOPE is able to supply rice weevil with essential vitamins like pantothenic acid, riboflavin, and biotin. Control of weevils involves locating and removing all potentially infested food sources. First confirmation of the distribution of rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae,in South Korea”. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Contribution to the morphology and ecology of the Sitophilus zeamais Motsch. Four intracellular genomes direct weevil biology: nuclear, mitochondrial, principal endosymbiont, and Wolbachia”.
