Sun beetle
The sun beetle is a bright, shiny beetle from Africa, coloured like the sun. Depending on the kind, it can be yellow, orange or red, sometimes with brown spots. Its fat larvae can grow much bigger than the beetle itself.
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Fun facts
Its larvae can grow up to 6 centimetres long, about twice as long as the grown-up beetle.
The larvae can make a soft snoring sound while they build their cocoons.
There are nine kinds of sun beetle, in yellow, orange and red.
A grown-up sun beetle can live for several months.
People raise them as food for pet lizards and other terrarium animals.
Most asked questions about Sun beetle
?Is the sun beetle dangerous?
No. It cannot bite or sting and is easy to keep.
?How big is the sun beetle?
The beetle is about 2 to 3 centimetres long. Its larvae can grow to 6 centimetres.
?How long does a sun beetle live?
As a grown-up beetle it lives several months, after 2 to 5 months as a larva.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pachnoda marginata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Congo chafer beetle
Where the facts come from
- Pachnoda marginata (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 Photo by Greg Hume ( Greg5030 ). CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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