Inflated beetle
Cysteodemus armatus
The inflated beetle looks like a little black balloon with white spots. Its wing covers are puffed up so much that they almost cover its chest. They are stuck together down the middle, so it cannot fly.
Lives in
North and Central America
Can it hurt you?
Better not touch
It is a blister beetle. Its body juice can make your skin sore and blistered, so do not pick it up.
What does it eat?
Like other blister beetles, the adults eat plants.
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)
Inflated beetle about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its puffed-up wing covers are black and covered in white dots.
2
Its wing covers are joined together, so it has to walk everywhere.
3
It belongs to the blister beetles, named for the juice that can give people blisters.
you asked
Most asked questions about Inflated beetle
?Can the inflated beetle fly?
No. Its wing covers are stuck together, so it cannot fly.
?Is the inflated beetle dangerous?
It can make your skin blister if you handle it, so just look at it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cysteodemus armatus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Meloidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Meloidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Inflated blister beetle
Where the facts come from
- Cysteodemus armatus (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 Junkyardsparkle. CC0, 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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