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Sticker of Bronze beetle
Bug card No. 0647 of 4,939

Bronze beetle

Chrysolina bankii
Eats: PlantsBeetlesGardens and meadows6 legs

The bronze beetle is a shiny, round leaf beetle that glows like old bronze metal. It has orange-brown legs and tiny dents all over its wing covers. It likes sunny, open places full of plants.

Lives in
Western Europe and the western Mediterranean, and now also California and Virginia
Length
0.8 to 1.1 cm (0.31 to 0.42 in)
Top speed
about 0.42 km/h (0.26 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It eats leaves of many plants, especially daisy and mint family plants. Ribwort plantain is one of its favourites.
For real!Photo of Bronze beetle
Picture by (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bronze beetle about 1.1 cm long (0.42 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 8.6 seconds

How big is Bronze beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mother lays her eggs on the underside of leaves.

2

In cold places it spends the winter as a larva, but in warm places grown-up beetles can be found in winter too.

3

It was brought to the United States by accident and is spreading there.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bronze beetle

?Is the bronze beetle harmful?

No. It is a harmless leaf beetle that eats plants.

?What does the bronze beetle eat?

Leaves of many plants, especially daisy and mint family plants and ribwort plantain.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Chrysolina bankii
Group
Beetles
Family
Chrysomelidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
Lives on
Europe, North America
Also known as
Bank's leaf beetle

Where the facts come from

  1. Chrysolina bankii (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by (c) Katja Schulz, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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