Spotted longhorn
The spotted longhorn is a slim beetle with long feelers and yellow wing cases covered in black spots and stripes. It looks a bit like a wasp, and that helps keep birds away. You can see it sitting on flowers in summer.
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Fun facts
It is a wasp copycat: its yellow and black colours trick birds into leaving it alone.
It spends most of its life as a larva hidden inside wood, for two or three years.
The grown-up beetle lives only two to four weeks.
It especially likes flat-topped flowers like cow parsley and wild carrot.
Most asked questions about Spotted longhorn
?Is the spotted longhorn a wasp?
No, it is a beetle. Its yellow and black pattern only makes it look like a wasp.
?Does the spotted longhorn sting?
No. It is harmless and just visits flowers for pollen and nectar.
?How big is a spotted longhorn?
About 1.3 to 2 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Rutpela maculata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Rutpela maculata (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 Didier Descouens. 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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