Giant cactus longhorn beetle
The giant cactus longhorn beetle is a big, shiny black beetle with long feelers. It lives in the hot Sonoran Desert and munches on prickly cactus. It cannot fly at all, so it walks everywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its front wings have grown together into one hard shell, which is why it cannot fly.
It looks and acts like a smelly stink beetle, so animals that hunt it leave it alone.
The grown-up beetles come out in summer, when the desert gets its big rainstorms.
Its larvae can bore so deep into a cactus that a weak plant may die.
Most asked questions about Giant cactus longhorn beetle
?What does the cactus longhorn beetle eat?
Cactus. It nibbles chollas, prickly pears and young saguaro cactus.
?Can the cactus longhorn beetle fly?
No. Its front wings are joined into one hard shell, so it walks instead.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Moneilema gigas
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Cactus longhorn beetle
Where the facts come from
- Moneilema gigas (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 unknown author. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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