Blue death-feigning beetle
The blue death-feigning beetle is a bumpy, powdery blue beetle that lives in the deserts of North America. When something scary comes along, it falls over and plays dead. Its blue colour comes from a waxy coat that keeps it from drying out.
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Fun facts
Its bumpy wing cases gave it its scientific name, which means warty.
It is most active at dawn and dusk, when the desert is not so hot.
Its larvae can ooze a sticky liquid that glues sand to their bodies, so they are harder for hunters to see.
It is very hard to breed. A zoo in the United States worked for four years before it raised its first grown-up beetle.
Lots of people keep it as a pet because it is calm, tough and lives a long time.
Most asked questions about Blue death-feigning beetle
?Why does the blue death-feigning beetle play dead?
To trick hungry animals. Many hunters lose interest in something that does not move.
?Why is the beetle blue?
It is covered in a powdery wax that keeps water in its body, and that wax makes it look blue.
?Is the blue death-feigning beetle a good pet?
Many people think so. It is easy to look after, tough and lives for a long time.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Asbolus verrucosus
- Named by
- LeConte, 1851
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Tenebrionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Tenebrionidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Desert ironclad beetle
Where the facts come from
- Asbolus verrucosus (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 JavAlvarezS. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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