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can anyone tell me what this bug is. I found two of them on

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  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    Fire bug x

  •  It's a burying beetle brightly coloured bands of orange- red on their wing cases, bright orange bobbles on the ends of their antennae widespread throughout all of the UK.


    wwweakringbirdscom

    "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,088
    I know them as Sexton Beetles ... marvellous little things

    https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/common-sexton-beetle

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    I would say, no, it is pyrrhocoris apterus. The markings a different.
  • Granny RGranny R Posts: 16
    Think you may be right Fire. Do you know if they're good or bad to have in the garden
  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    edited July 2018
    To my knowledge they are just beautiful and do no harm. They have recently spread to the UK from Europe, so are still quite unusual here (assuming you are writing from the UK). I think they live on the seeds of different plants, such as mallows and hollyhock.
    Birds don't predate them as they taste bad, as the markings might suggest.
  • Granny RGranny R Posts: 16
    Hello Fire, yes I am in East London. Am surprised they came into my garden as don't have Mallows or Hollyhocks. Found them on Crocosmia. Disappeared now but will keep an eye out for them as there were two that looked as though they were mating.
  • Hampshire HogHampshire Hog Posts: 330
    edited July 2018
    If its hairy it could apparently be:| 
    Corizus hyoscyami
    "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
  • FireFire Posts: 17,348
    I think it is the cinnamon bug, yes, (above) not the fire bug. The fire bug seems to have a solid black triangle on its shoulders. Which the OP's does not.
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