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Sticker of Metallic blue lady beetle
Bug card No. 2834 of 4,939

Metallic blue lady beetle

Curinus coeruleus

The metallic blue lady beetle is a ladybird that is not red at all. Its wing cases are shiny dark blue, almost purple, like a little metal button. The shield behind its head has bright orange sides.

Lives in
South America, such as Brazil. People also brought it to India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hawaii
Length
4.9 to 5.2 mm (0.19 to 0.2 in)
Top speed
about 28 km/h (17 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot hurt you.
What does it eat?
It hunts tiny plant pests like whiteflies, mealybugs, aphids and thrips.
For real!Photo of Metallic blue lady beetle
Picture by Forest & Kim Starr. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Metallic blue lady beetle about 5.2 mm long (0.2 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 14 secondsmoves 1500 times its own body length every second

How big is Metallic blue lady beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

You can tell boys from girls by their heads: males have a partly orange-yellow head, females a dark one.

2

It is about 5 millimetres long, about as big as a grain of rice.

3

It eats lots of different pests, from whiteflies to tiny insects called thrips.

4

It came from South America and now also lives in parts of Asia and in Hawaii.

you asked

Most asked questions about Metallic blue lady beetle

?Are all ladybirds red?

No. The metallic blue lady beetle is shiny dark blue, almost purple.

?What does the metallic blue lady beetle eat?

Tiny plant pests such as whiteflies, mealybugs, aphids and thrips.

Myth buster

Myth: All ladybirds are red with black spots.

Truth: No. The metallic blue lady beetle is shiny dark blue, almost purple, with no spots at all.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Curinus coeruleus
Group
Ladybirds
Family
Coccinellidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
Lives on
South America, Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Curinus coeruleus (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 Forest & Kim Starr. CC BY 3.0, 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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More from the same group: Ladybirds

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