Brown soldier bug
The brown soldier bug is a shield bug that hunts other insects. It is brown with a big black triangle on each wing. It stabs its prey with its beak and drinks the juices, like through a straw.
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Fun facts
The mother lays about thirty black eggs in three neat rows on a leaf or a piece of bark.
The babies are red with black heads when they hatch.
The babies change their skin five times, and every time they get a new pattern of red and black.
Only one family of these bugs grows up each year, and they breed in summer.
Females are about 1 centimetre long, and the males are a little smaller.
Most asked questions about Brown soldier bug
?What does the brown soldier bug eat?
Caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects. It sucks out their juices with its beak.
?Is the brown soldier bug dangerous?
No. It hunts insects and is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cermatulus nasalis
- Named by
- Westwood, 1837
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Pentatomidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Pentatomidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Glossy shield bug
Where the facts come from
- Cermatulus nasalis (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 Steve Kerr. CC BY 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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