Lantana hispid
Uroplata girardi
The lantana hispid is a small leaf beetle from South America. It is named after lantana, a bushy plant with colourful flowers. Its babies eat lantana leaves and nothing else.
Lives in
First from Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, now also in Africa, Asia, Australia and many Pacific islands
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
Its larvae eat the leaves of lantana. The grown-up beetles also nibble other plants, even the leaves of teak trees.
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)
Lantana hispid about 0.5 km/h (0.31 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
People have carried it to more than 20 countries and islands far from its home.
2
It now lives on Pacific islands like Fiji, Samoa and Hawaii.
3
The adults eat several kinds of plants, but their larvae stick to lantana.
you asked
Most asked questions about Lantana hispid
?What does the lantana hispid eat?
Its larvae eat lantana leaves, and the adults eat lantana and a few other plants.
?Where does the lantana hispid come from?
From South America: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Uroplata girardi
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Uroplata girardi (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 Nigel Main. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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