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Sticker of Rambur's pied shieldbug
Bug card No. 3485 of 4,939

Rambur's pied shieldbug

Tritomegas sexmaculatus
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

Rambur's pied shieldbug is a small black and white bug shaped like a little shield. Its name says pied, which means patchy black and white. It lives in Europe and has been spreading to new places.

Lives in
From the west coast of Europe to Iran
Length
6 to 8 mm (0.24 to 0.31 in)
Top speed
about 0.16 km/h (0.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
It mostly feeds on black horehound, a weedy plant of the mint family.
For real!Photo of Rambur's pied shieldbug
Picture by Nathan Nyx. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Rambur's pied shieldbug about 8 mm long (0.31 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 fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 22 seconds

How big is Rambur's pied shieldbug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It was first found in Britain in 2011.

2

Since then it has spread quickly across southeast England.

3

Its favourite food plant is black horehound.

you asked

Most asked questions about Rambur's pied shieldbug

?Where does Rambur's pied shieldbug live?

From the west coast of Europe all the way to Iran, and now in England too.

?How big is Rambur's pied shieldbug?

About 6 to 8 millimetres long, smaller than a fingernail.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tritomegas sexmaculatus
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Cydnidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Cydnidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Tritomegas sexmaculatus (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 Nathan Nyx. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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