Wasp beetle
The wasp beetle is a black and yellow beetle that pretends to be a wasp. It even moves its thin legs and feelers in quick, jerky little bursts, just like a wasp does. But it is only a beetle, and it cannot sting at all.
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Fun facts
Its babies live in dead wood, like old fence posts and fallen branches, and help turn it back into soil.
Sometimes wasp beetles hatch out of firewood that people have brought indoors to dry over winter.
Its feelers are short for a longhorn beetle.
Grown-ups are usually seen from May to July, often on flowers, even in flower pots in towns.
Most asked questions about Wasp beetle
?Can a wasp beetle sting?
No. It only looks like a wasp. It is a harmless beetle with no sting.
?What does a wasp beetle eat?
The grown-ups eat pollen from flowers, and the grubs eat dead wood.
?How big is a wasp beetle?
It is about 1 to 2 centimetres long.
Myth buster
Myth: The wasp beetle is a wasp and can sting.
Truth: No. It is a beetle that only looks like a wasp. That way birds leave it alone, but it has no sting.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Clytus arietis
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Clytus arietis (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 Didier Descouens. 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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