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Sticker of California bordered plant bug
Bug card No. 0754 of 4,939

California bordered plant bug

Largus californicus
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The California bordered plant bug is a black bug with bright orange edges around its body, like a painted border. Its babies look completely different: they are shiny metallic blue. It is about as long as a large paper clip.

Lives in
Western North America and parts of Central America, in gardens and dry fields
Length
2.5 cm (0.98 in)
Top speed
about 0.29 km/h (0.18 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
Like its relatives, it sucks juice from plants.
For real!Photo of California bordered plant bug
Picture by Foton-Tardigrado. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

California bordered plant bug about 2.5 cm long (0.98 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 12 seconds

How big is California bordered plant bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its babies are shiny metallic blue, and later get a red spot near the tail.

2

It is about 2.5 centimetres long.

3

It looks exactly the same as a close cousin, so even experts cannot tell them apart by looks.

you asked

Most asked questions about California bordered plant bug

?Is the California bordered plant bug harmful?

No. It is harmless to people.

?What do the babies look like?

They are shiny metallic blue, very different from the black and orange adults.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Largus californicus
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Largidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Largidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Largus californicus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Foton-Tardigrado. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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