Contracted darkling beetle
The contracted darkling beetle is a bronze-black beetle with a round, humped back. Its back is covered in tiny dents. It lives under bark and on old tree stumps in North America.
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Fun facts
A brand new grown-up beetle is creamy white. It slowly gets darker until it is bronze-black.
Its babies spend the winter inside rotting logs.
To survive the cold, the babies make their own antifreeze, a bit like some fish in icy water. It keeps them alive down to about minus 11 degrees.
It stays in its resting stage, the pupa, for only 10 to 14 days before it becomes a beetle.
Most asked questions about Contracted darkling beetle
?Is the darkling beetle dangerous?
No. It does not bite or sting.
?How big is the contracted darkling beetle?
Adults are 11 to 14 millimetres long.
?How does it survive the winter?
The babies hide in rotting logs and make their own antifreeze so they do not freeze.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Meracantha contracta
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Tenebrionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Tenebrionidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Meracantha contracta (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 Christina Butler. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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