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Sticker of Bronze orange bug
Bug card No. 0651 of 4,939

Bronze orange bug

Musgraveia sulciventris
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The bronze orange bug is a big, shiny Australian stink bug, about 2.5 centimetres long. It starts out pale green, turns orange and ends up a glowing bronze colour. When it feels scared, it squirts a stinky liquid at its enemies.

Lives in
Eastern Australia, in Queensland and New South Wales, as far south as Canberra
Length
2.5 cm (0.98 in)
Top speed
about 0.29 km/h (0.18 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch
Its smelly spray can hurt your skin, and if it gets in your eyes it can make you unable to see for a while. Look, do not touch, and tell a grown-up if you see one.

Watch out! Read how to stay safe on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It sucks sap from citrus trees, like lemons and limes. This makes the flowers and young fruit turn yellow and fall off.
For real!Photo of Bronze orange bug
Picture by Graham Wise from Brisbane, Australia. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bronze orange bug about 2.5 cm long (0.98 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 12 seconds

How big is Bronze orange bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It can squirt its stinky spray at a target up to 60 centimetres away.

2

Its eggs are bright green little balls, laid in a group under a leaf.

3

The newly hatched babies are see-through pale green with orange eyes, and they huddle together next to their eggs.

4

Assassin bugs and tiny wasps are among the animals that hunt it.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bronze orange bug

?What does the bronze orange bug eat?

It sucks sap from citrus trees, which can make the fruit fall off.

?How big is the bronze orange bug?

A grown-up bug is about 25 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Musgraveia sulciventris
Named by
Stål, 1863
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Tessaratomidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Tessaratomidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Stink bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Musgraveia sulciventris (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 Graham Wise from Brisbane, Australia. 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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