Swamp milkweed leaf beetle
The swamp milkweed leaf beetle is a round orange and black beetle that looks a lot like a big ladybird. But it is not a ladybird at all. It lives on milkweed plants, which are poisonous to most animals.
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Fun facts
Its bright orange and black colours warn birds that it might taste horrible.
The monarch butterfly, milkweed bugs and other milkweed eaters wear the same warning colours.
The mother lays little groups of orange eggs that look like tiny jellybeans.
The grubs eat day and night, then go into the soil to change into beetles.
A grown-up beetle may even push a monarch caterpillar out of the way to eat.
Most asked questions about Swamp milkweed leaf beetle
?Is the swamp milkweed leaf beetle a ladybird?
No. It looks like a big ladybird, but it is a leaf beetle, a close cousin.
?What does the swamp milkweed leaf beetle eat?
Milkweed leaves, a plant that is poisonous to most other animals.
?How big is the swamp milkweed leaf beetle?
About 8 to 11 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Labidomera clivicollis
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Milkweed leaf beetle
Where the facts come from
- Milkweed leaf beetle (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 Smidon33. 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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