False mealworm beetle
Alobates pensylvanicus
The false mealworm beetle is a shiny black beetle that hides under tree bark and old logs. It has a nearly square shield behind its head. On each wing cover there are rows of tiny dents, like dotted lines.
Lives in
All over the United States, under bark and logs
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It lives under bark and logs and finds its food there.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
False mealworm beetle about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It lives for about one year.
2
Its larvae are pale white and need more dampness than many of their cousins.
3
Some aquariums feed its larvae to fish.
4
It is easy to mix up with a cousin that has a tuft of long yellow hairs under its head.
5
Its scientific name is so often spelled wrong that the mistake is famous.
you asked
Most asked questions about False mealworm beetle
?Where does the false mealworm beetle live?
Under bark and logs all over the United States.
?Is the false mealworm beetle dangerous?
No. It is a harmless black beetle.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Alobates pensylvanicus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Tenebrionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Tenebrionidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Alobates pennsylvanica (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 Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, 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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