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Sticker of Southern small milkweed bug
Bug card No. 4039 of 4,939

Southern small milkweed bug

Lygaeus reclivatus
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The southern small milkweed bug is a seed bug from North and Central America. Like all true bugs, it has a mouth shaped like a tiny straw, which it pokes into plants to drink.

Lives in
North and Central America
Top speed
about 0.2 km/h (0.12 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
It is a seed bug, so it sucks the juice out of plant seeds.
For real!Photo of Southern small milkweed bug
Picture by gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It belongs to the seed bugs, a family of bugs that feed on seeds.

2

It has two subspecies, named by a scientist called Say in 1825 and 1831.

3

Like all insects, it has six legs and a body in three parts.

you asked

Most asked questions about Southern small milkweed bug

?Where does the southern small milkweed bug live?

In North America and Central America.

?Is the southern small milkweed bug dangerous?

No. It feeds on plants and is harmless to people.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lygaeus reclivatus
Named by
Say, 1825
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Lygaeidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Lygaeidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Lygaeus reclivatus (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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