Western fairy lady beetle
Psyllobora borealis
The western fairy lady beetle is a tiny ladybird from western North America. It has dark blotches on its wing cases. Unlike many ladybirds, it does not hunt aphids. It eats mould.
Lives in
Western North America, from British Columbia and Montana down to California and New Mexico
Length
2.4 to 3.1 mm (0.09 to 0.12 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a tiny beetle that cannot sting.
What does it eat?
Its main food is powdery mildew, the white, dusty-looking mould that grows on leaves.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 17 seconds⚡moves 2000 times its own body length every second
How big is Western fairy lady beetle compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Western fairy lady beetle about 22 km/h (14 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is only about 3 millimetres long, smaller than a grain of rice.
2
By eating powdery mildew off leaves, it helps keep plants healthy.
3
It has a close cousin that looks very similar. You can tell them apart by one small spot on the side of the wing case.
you asked
Most asked questions about Western fairy lady beetle
?What does the western fairy lady beetle eat?
It eats powdery mildew, a white mould that grows on leaves.
?How big is the western fairy lady beetle?
About 2.4 to 3.1 millimetres long, really tiny.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Psyllobora borealis
- Group
- Ladybirds
- Family
- Coccinellidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Psyllobora borealis (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 Jesse Rorabaugh. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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