Black-headed cardinal beetle
The black-headed cardinal beetle is bright red with a shiny black head. It has long, feathery feelers that look like tiny combs. You can spot it on sunny spring days near old logs in the woods.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Black-headed cardinal beetle compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its larva lives for many years under the bark of fallen trees before it becomes a beetle.
The larva is flat and creamy yellow, so it can squeeze into narrow cracks in the wood.
The grown-up beetles live only a short time. Most of them are seen in May and June.
Boys have comb-like feelers, while girls have feelers with little saw teeth.
It has a cousin with a red head, so look at the head to tell them apart.
Most asked questions about Black-headed cardinal beetle
?Is the cardinal beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people, but its red colour warns birds not to eat it.
?What does the cardinal beetle eat?
Grown-ups eat small insects, flowers and pollen. The larvae eat rotting wood under bark.
?How big is the black-headed cardinal beetle?
It is about 14 to 20 millimetres long, about as long as a paperclip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pyrochroa coccinea
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Pyrochroidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Pyrochroidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Cardinal beetle (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 soebe. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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.
Stag beetle
Hercules beetle
Common glow-worm
Goliath beetle
Cockchafer
Mealworm beetle
Wood white
Purple hairstreak
Clifden nonpareil
Giant lacewing
Giant walkingstick
Woolly beech aphid