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Sticker of Red-banded fungus beetle
Bug card No. 3553 of 4,939

Red-banded fungus beetle

Megalodacne fasciata
Eats: Fungus and mouldBeetlesForests and woods6 legs

The red-banded fungus beetle is a shiny black beetle with jagged orange bands on its back. It lives on big shelf-like mushrooms that grow on dead logs. It is one of the biggest of its family in North America.

Lives in
Eastern North America, mostly in the United States
Length
1 to 1.6 cm (0.39 to 0.61 in)
Top speed
about 0.51 km/h (0.32 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting you.
What does it eat?
Both the beetles and their larvae eat bracket fungi, especially the shiny lacquered bracket.
For real!Photo of Red-banded fungus beetle
Picture by xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Red-banded fungus beetle about 1.6 cm long (0.61 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 7.1 seconds

How big is Red-banded fungus beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It has big eyes, a sign that it is busy at dusk and at night.

2

When it is too cold, too hot or too sunny, it hides under tree bark.

3

In summer it often flies to bright lights at night.

4

A smaller beetle called the picnic beetle has almost the same colours, so people mix them up.

you asked

Most asked questions about Red-banded fungus beetle

?What does the red-banded fungus beetle eat?

Bracket fungi, the shelf-like mushrooms that grow on dead logs and stumps.

?Is the red-banded fungus beetle dangerous?

No. It is harmless to people.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Megalodacne fasciata
Group
Beetles
Family
Erotylidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Erotylidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Red-banded pleasing fungus beetle

Where the facts come from

  1. Megalodacne fasciata (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 xpda. 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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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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