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Sticker of Red shield bug
Bug card No. 3533 of 4,939

Red shield bug

Carpocoris mediterraneus
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The red shield bug is a bright yellow or orange bug shaped like a little shield. It has four short black stripes behind its head and five dark spots on its back. It lives in the warm lands around the Mediterranean Sea.

Lives in
Around the Mediterranean, in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, on flowering plants
Length
1.1 to 1.3 cm (0.43 to 0.51 in)
Top speed
about 0.21 km/h (0.13 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It drinks plant juice from many different plants, and it is especially fond of parsley.
For real!Photo of Red shield bug
Picture by gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Red shield bug about 1.3 cm long (0.51 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 17 seconds

How big is Red shield bug compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

You can often find it sitting on flowering plants, especially parsley.

2

Its feelers are made of five parts.

3

It looks so much like three of its cousins that they are easy to mix up.

4

There are two kinds of it, and one has sharp, pointy shoulders.

you asked

Most asked questions about Red shield bug

?What does the red shield bug eat?

It is a plant eater and sucks juice from many plants, especially parsley.

?How big is the red shield bug?

About 1.1 to 1.3 centimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Carpocoris mediterraneus
Named by
Tamanini, 1958
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Pentatomidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Pentatomidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Carpocoris mediterraneus (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 gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, 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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