Black-and-red bug
The black-and-red bug wears a bold red and black pattern, with a round white spot on its back. It is a seed bug with long, strong legs. Its bright colours are a warning to birds that it tastes bad.
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Fun facts
It keeps poison from the plants it eats inside its body, so birds and other hunters find it yucky.
Its babies, called nymphs, look like small grown-ups without full wings and eat the same plant juice.
The grown-up bugs sleep through the winter and wake up again in spring.
It likes warm places with chalky ground best.
Most asked questions about Black-and-red bug
?Is the black-and-red bug poisonous?
It stores bitter plant poisons that make it taste bad to birds, but it is harmless for people to look at.
?What does the black-and-red bug eat?
It sucks juice from plants, especially swallow-wort and dandelions.
?How big is the black-and-red bug?
About 11 to 12 millimetres long, roughly as long as your fingernail.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lygaeus equestris
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Lygaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Lygaeidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Lygaeus equestris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Bill.pix. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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