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Sticker of Striped shield bug
Bug card No. 1307 of 1,500

Striped shield bug

Graphosoma italicum
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The striped shield bug looks like it is wearing a red and black striped football shirt. Its body is almost round, with a big shield on its back. You often find it sitting on the flat white flower heads of plants like wild carrot and hogweed.

Lives in
Europe, around the Mediterranean and western Asia, in warm sunny meadows
Length
0.8 to 1.2 cm (0.31 to 0.47 in)
Top speed
about 0.2 km/h (0.12 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Its bright stripes warn birds that it tastes horrible, but it does not bite people.
What does it eat?
It sucks juice from plants, especially the flower heads and seeds of the carrot family, like wild carrot, hogweed and fennel.
For real!Photo of Striped shield bug
Picture by Ivar Leidus. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Striped shield bug about 1.2 cm long (0.47 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 18 seconds

How big is Striped shield bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its red and black colours are a warning: birds learn that it tastes nasty and leave it alone.

2

The babies are mostly brown and do not have the stripes yet.

3

It loves warmth and sunshine. In recent years it has spread north as far as Denmark and southern Finland.

4

Its legs are black. A close cousin with orange legs lives in North Africa and Sicily.

5

For more than 100 years scientists thought it was the same species as that cousin, until DNA tests showed they were different.

you asked

Most asked questions about Striped shield bug

?Is the striped shield bug dangerous?

No. It does not bite or sting people. Its bright colours just warn birds that it tastes bad.

?What does the striped shield bug eat?

It sucks juice from plants of the carrot family, like wild carrot, hogweed and fennel.

?How big is the striped shield bug?

It is about 8 to 12 millimetres long, about as big as your little fingernail.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Graphosoma italicum
Named by
Müller, 1766
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Pentatomidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Pentatomidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa
Also known as
Striped bug, Italian striped bug, Minstrel bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Graphosoma italicum (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 Ivar Leidus. 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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