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Sticker of Ten-spotted spurleg
Bug card No. 4312 of 4,939

Ten-spotted spurleg

Brachiacantha decempustulata

The ten-spotted spurleg is a tiny ladybird from eastern North America. It has an oval body with small spots on its wing cases. It is so small that you could easily miss it.

Lives in
Eastern North America, from Nova Scotia down to Florida and west to Wisconsin and Louisiana
Length
2 to 2.5 mm (0.08 to 0.1 in)
Top speed
about 19 km/h (12 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot hurt you.
What does it eat?
Like most ladybirds, it hunts tiny bugs that suck juice from plants.
For real!Photo of Ten-spotted spurleg
Picture by Even Dankowicz. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Ten-spotted spurleg about 2.5 mm long (0.1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
2.5 of them in a row are as long as one grain of ricecould fly across a whole football pitch in 20 secondsmoves 2100 times its own body length every second

How big is Ten-spotted spurleg compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is only 2 to 2.5 millimetres long, about as big as a pinhead.

2

It looks a lot like a close cousin, but its body is more oval and its spots are smaller.

3

It has also been found as far west as North Dakota.

you asked

Most asked questions about Ten-spotted spurleg

?Is the ten-spotted spurleg dangerous?

No. It is a tiny, harmless ladybird.

?How big is the ten-spotted spurleg?

Only 2 to 2.5 millimetres long, about the size of a pinhead.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Brachiacantha decempustulata
Group
Ladybirds
Family
Coccinellidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Brachiacantha decempustulata (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 Even Dankowicz. 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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