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Sticker of Spotted lanternfly
Bug card No. 1281 of 1,500

Spotted lanternfly

Lycorma delicatula
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The spotted lanternfly has grey wings with black spots. When it flies, it shows bright red back wings with black spots and a white stripe. Its babies are black with white dots at first and turn red as they grow.

Lives in
First from China and Vietnam, now also in Korea, Japan, North America and Eastern Europe
Length
2.5 cm (0.98 in)
Top speed
about 1.8 km/h (1.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
It does not bite or sting people. It is a problem for trees and farms, not for you.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from trees and crops like grapes, apples and soybeans. Its favourite is a tree called the tree of heaven.
For real!Photo of Spotted lanternfly
Picture by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Spotted lanternfly 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 2 secondsmoves 20 times its own body length every second

How big is Spotted lanternfly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It can feed on more than 170 different kinds of plants.

2

The sticky sweet waste it leaves behind is bad for the plants it lives on.

3

It travels to new countries hidden as eggs. A mother lays 30 to 50 eggs and covers them with grey stuff that looks like mud.

4

At home in Asia, tiny wasps keep it in check, but in new places it has fewer enemies.

5

It was first found in the United States in 2014 and has been spreading ever since.

you asked

Most asked questions about Spotted lanternfly

?Is the spotted lanternfly dangerous?

Not to people. It does not bite or sting, but it harms trees and crops.

?What does a spotted lanternfly eat?

It sucks the sap of trees and plants, especially the tree of heaven, grapes and fruit trees.

?How big is a spotted lanternfly?

About 25 millimetres long, and about 12 millimetres wide.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lycorma delicatula
Named by
White, 1845
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Fulgoridae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Fulgoridae
Lives on
Asia, North America, Europe
Also known as
SLF

Where the facts come from

  1. Spotted lanternfly (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 Rhododendrites. 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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