Ten-lined June beetle
The ten-lined June beetle is a big brown beetle with white stripes running down its back. If you pick it up, it makes a hissing noise like a tiny bat. The males have fancy feelers that open up like a fan.
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Fun facts
It hisses by pushing its wings down, which squeezes air out between its wings and back.
Each wing cover has four long white stripes and one short one. That makes ten lines in all.
The male uses his big fan-like feelers to smell the females. He folds them shut when he is scared.
Its grub can grow up to about 5 centimetres long and may stay a grub for as long as four years.
The grown-up beetles fly towards lights at night.
Most asked questions about Ten-lined June beetle
?Why does the ten-lined June beetle hiss?
It hisses to scare away anything that disturbs it. The sound comes from air pushed out by its wings.
?Is the ten-lined June beetle dangerous?
No. It does not sting and is harmless to people.
?How big is a ten-lined June beetle?
About 3 centimetres long, and some grow even bigger.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polyphylla decemlineata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Watermelon beetle
Where the facts come from
- Ten-lined June 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 Junkyardsparkle. CC0, 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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