Firebug
The firebug is a bright red and black bug with a pattern that looks a bit like a mask. You often see lots of them together, warming up in the sun at the bottom of a tree. It is one of the easiest bugs to spot in a park.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Firebugs like to sit in groups on the sunny side of lime tree trunks.
Young firebugs gather in crowds of tens and sometimes up to a hundred.
Scientists once found that American paper towels stopped young firebugs from growing up, because a tree used to make the paper has a special chemical in it.
A pair of firebugs can walk around joined back to back for many hours, sometimes for days.
It looks a bit like another red and black bug, the cinnamon bug, but they are not close relatives.
Most asked questions about Firebug
?Is the firebug dangerous?
No. It is harmless and does not bite or sting.
?What does the firebug eat?
Mostly seeds of lime trees and mallow plants.
?Why do you see so many firebugs together?
Firebugs like company. They gather in groups, especially the young ones, often in a sunny spot by a tree trunk.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pyrrhocoris apterus
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Pyrrhocoridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Pyrrhocoridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Pyrrhocoris apterus (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 Diego Delso. 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.
Pharaoh cicada
Spotted lanternfly
Brown marmorated stink bug
Cochineal
Boxelder bug
Western conifer seed bug
Narrow-winged mantis
Small pearl-bordered fritillary
Vestal cuckoo bumblebee
Heart and dart
Feather-legged fly
Seven-spot ladybird,_Hartelholz,_M%C3%BAnich,_Alemania,_2020-06-28,_DD_362-382_FS.jpg){kind=link}