Diabolical ironclad beetle
The diabolical ironclad beetle is one of the toughest bugs on Earth. Its flat, bumpy shell is so strong that birds and lizards can hardly break it. It cannot fly, but it does not need to: almost nothing can break its armour.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its shell can hold up a weight of more than 15 kilograms, about 39,000 times its own weight.
Its wing cases are locked together like a zip, so it can never open them to fly.
A grown-up can live about eight years. Most beetles live only weeks or months as adults.
Its shell is so hard that collectors have to drill a hole in it to pin it in a display box.
Engineers study its jigsaw-shaped shell joints to design stronger materials.
Most asked questions about Diabolical ironclad beetle
?Can you crush a diabolical ironclad beetle?
It is very hard. Its shell can carry more than 15 kilograms without breaking.
?How long does the ironclad beetle live?
A grown-up can live about eight years, which is very long for a beetle.
?What does the ironclad beetle eat?
Fungi and rotten wood under the bark of dead trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phloeodes diabolicus
- Named by
- LeConte
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Zopheridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Zopheridae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Phloeodes diabolicus (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 Jesse Rorabaugh. CC0, 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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