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Sticker of June bug
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June bug

Phyllophaga
Name means: “leaf eater, from two Greek words”
Eats: PlantsBeetlesGardens and meadows6 legs

June bugs are chunky brown beetles that buzz around on warm summer nights. They love bright lights and often bump into windows and porch lamps. There are more than 900 different kinds of them in America.

Lives in
North and South America, in lawns, gardens and fields
Length
1.2 to 3.5 cm (0.47 to 1.4 in)
Top speed
about 0.76 km/h (0.47 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It may buzz into you near a lamp, but it does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The beetles eat the leaves and flowers of trees and bushes. Their fat white babies, called white grubs, live in the soil and chew on grass roots.
For real!Photo of June bug
Picture by Patrick Coin ( Patrick Coin ). CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

June bug about 3.5 cm long (1.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 6 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 4.7 seconds

How big is June bug compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The babies are fat white grubs with brown heads that lie curled up in the soil like a comma.

2

When crows peel back the grass on a lawn, they are often looking for June bug grubs to eat.

3

A grub can grow to about 4 centimetres long, longer than the beetle itself.

4

Skunks, moles and frogs love to eat the grubs.

you asked

Most asked questions about June bug

?Do June bugs bite?

No. June bugs are harmless and do not bite or sting.

?Why do June bugs fly into lights?

They fly at night and are drawn to bright lamps, so they gather around them in big numbers.

?What do June bugs eat?

The beetles eat tree leaves and flowers, and the grubs eat plant roots under the ground.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Phyllophaga
Group
Beetles
Family
Scarabaeidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on
North America, South America
Also known as
May beetle, July beetle

Where the facts come from

  1. Phyllophaga (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 Patrick Coin ( Patrick Coin ). CC BY-SA 2.5, 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.

More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows