Black fire beetle
The black fire beetle is a small black beetle that loves forest fires. While other animals run away from a fire, it flies towards it. It lays its eggs in freshly burned pine and fir trees.
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Fun facts
It has special sensors on its body that help it find burned trees.
Huge swarms of these beetles fly to forest fires.
Some people think it is the insect born from fire that an ancient Roman writer called Pliny wrote about.
The mothers choose charred, burned wood to lay their eggs in.
Most asked questions about Black fire beetle
?Why does the black fire beetle fly to fires?
Freshly burned trees are the perfect place for its babies to grow.
?How does the fire beetle find a fire?
It has special sensors on its body that detect burned trees.
?How big is the black fire beetle?
It is about 7 to 11 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Melanophila acuminata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Buprestidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Buprestidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Fire bug
Where the facts come from
- Melanophila acuminata (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 Udo Schmidt from Deutschland. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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