Red milkweed beetle
The red milkweed beetle is a bright red beetle with black spots and long black feelers. It lives almost only on milkweed plants. Its feelers grow right through the middle of its eyes, so each eye looks like two.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Milkweed has poison in it. The beetle keeps some of it in its body, which makes it taste horrible to hungry animals.
Its bright red and black colours are a warning sign that says: I taste bad.
When it gets a fright it makes a squeaky noise, and when it meets another beetle it makes a soft purring sound.
It bites open the veins of a leaf first so it does not get covered in sticky milky sap.
In midsummer the mother lays her eggs inside the bottom of the milkweed stem.
Most asked questions about Red milkweed beetle
?Is the red milkweed beetle poisonous?
It is not dangerous to touch, but it tastes bad to animals that try to eat it.
?What does the red milkweed beetle eat?
Only milkweed. Adults eat the leaves and flowers, larvae eat the roots.
?Why does it have four eyes?
It really has two, but each eye is split in half by the base of its feeler, so it looks like four.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
- Named by
- Forster, 1771
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Tetraopes tetrophthalmus (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 Rbreidbrown. 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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