Cobalt milkweed beetle
The cobalt milkweed beetle is a shiny, deep blue beetle that sparkles in the sun. It eats milkweed, a plant full of poison, but the poison does not hurt it. It even keeps the poison in its body to protect itself.
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Fun facts
It stores the poison from its food in special glands, which makes it taste bad to enemies.
It can jump by flicking itself into the air, a bit like a click beetle.
Its shell is iridescent, which means the blue changes as you move.
In spring, big groups of them can eat many holes in milkweed leaves.
Most asked questions about Cobalt milkweed beetle
?Is the blue milkweed beetle poisonous?
It stores poisons from milkweed in its body to protect itself. It does not bite, but do not eat it.
?What does the cobalt milkweed beetle eat?
Milkweed and dogbane plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chrysochus cobaltinus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Blue milkweed beetle
Where the facts come from
- Chrysochus cobaltinus (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 (c) Chloe and Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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