Black stonefly
The black stonefly lives only in New Zealand. It is black with bright yellow and white markings. Those bright colours are a warning: it is poisonous to eat, so animals that try it learn to leave it alone.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Both the young and the adults carry a poison called cyanide, which makes them a bad meal for any hunter.
Some other stoneflies that are not poisonous at all copy its black, yellow and white colours to fool hungry animals.
It is common in streams in forests, but rare or missing in streams where the trees have been cut down.
A fossil of its family was found in old rocks in New Zealand, so its family has lived there for a very long time.
Scientists think its family split from its cousins in Australia and Chile about 37 million years ago.
Most asked questions about Black stonefly
?Is the black stonefly poisonous?
Yes, it carries a poison called cyanide inside its body. It cannot sting or bite you, but nobody should eat it.
?Where does the black stonefly live?
Only in New Zealand, in streams, most often in forests.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Austroperla cyrene
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Austroperlidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Plecoptera > Austroperlidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Austroperla (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 Leon Perrie. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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