Coffee bean weevil

The Coffee Bean Weevil (Araecerus fasciculatus) is a small beetle in the family Anthribidae, measuring approximately 3–5 millimetres in length, and is considered one of the most cosmopolitan stored-product pests of tropical and subtropical commodities worldwide. Despite its common name, it attacks a remarkably wide range of dried plant materials beyond coffee, including cacao beans, nutmeg, ginger, dried fruit, yams, cassava chips, maize, seeds, and herbarium specimens. Adults are mottled brownish-grey with irregular paler markings, providing camouflage against the substrate they infest. Females lay eggs directly into commodity material; larvae develop internally within seeds or dried plant tissue, consuming the contents and rendering products unfit for consumption or sale. Native to tropical Asia, the species has been distributed globally through trade in infested commodities, achieving pantropical and warm-temperate distributions across Asia, Africa, Europe (in stored products), North America, and South America. It is particularly significant as a post-harvest pest in tropical countries where hot, humid storage conditions favour rapid population development. Control measures include hermetic storage, phosphine fumigation, heat treatment, and the use of insect-proof packaging. The species is not formally evaluated for conservation status.