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Sticker of Rough hermit beetle
Bug card No. 3674 of 4,939

Rough hermit beetle

Osmoderma scabrum
Eats: PlantsBeetlesForests and woods6 legs

The rough hermit beetle is a black scarab beetle, sometimes with a metallic shine. It is a night beetle that hides under tree bark. It lives in the forests of eastern North America.

Lives in
Eastern North America, from Quebec south to Tennessee, in forests
Length
1.4 to 2 cm (0.55 to 0.79 in)
Top speed
about 0.58 km/h (0.36 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups visit places where sweet sap runs out of trees.
For real!Photo of Rough hermit beetle
Picture by André-Philippe Drapeau Picard. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Rough hermit beetle about 2 cm long (0.79 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 3 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 6.2 seconds

How big is Rough hermit beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It comes out at night, so it is not easy to spot.

2

You can sometimes find it at trees where sap is flowing, or under bark.

3

It belongs to the scarab beetles, a big family that also has chafers and dung beetles.

you asked

Most asked questions about Rough hermit beetle

?Is the rough hermit beetle dangerous?

No. It is harmless to people.

?How big is the rough hermit beetle?

About 1.4 to 2 centimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Osmoderma scabrum
Group
Beetles
Family
Scarabaeidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Osmoderma scabrum (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 André-Philippe Drapeau Picard. CC0, 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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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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