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Sticker of Mediterranean red bug
Bug card No. 2819 of 4,939

Mediterranean red bug

Scantius aegyptius
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The Mediterranean red bug is a bright red bug with a black head, black legs and two round black spots on its back. It lives on the ground. Its bright colours warn birds that it does not taste good.

Lives in
Around the Mediterranean, and now in California too
Length
7 to 9 mm (0.28 to 0.35 in)
Top speed
about 0.17 km/h (0.11 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot sting.
What does it eat?
It sucks the juice from seeds and seed pods, especially of mallow plants.
For real!Photo of Mediterranean red bug
Picture by Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Mediterranean red bug about 9 mm long (0.35 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailas long as 1.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 21 seconds

How big is Mediterranean red bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Young bugs can be completely red and get more black spots each time they shed their skin.

2

It was first found in California in 2009.

3

By 2018 it lived in most of the counties of Southern California.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mediterranean red bug

?Is the Mediterranean red bug harmful?

Not to people. It can harm mallow family plants.

?How big is the Mediterranean red bug?

Grown-ups are about 7 to 9 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Scantius aegyptius
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Pyrrhocoridae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Pyrrhocoridae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Scantius aegyptius (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. 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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