Red Soldier Beetle or Hogweed Bonking Beetle

Red Soldier Beetle or Hogweed Bonking Beetle is a common beetle seen on hogweed flowers from May until August.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Rhagonycha fulva
Family: 
Soldier Beetles
Family Latin name: 
CANTHARIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

The Red Soldier Beetle or Hogweed Bonking Beetle is a common beetle seen on hogweed flowers from May until August. Its lurid red colour gives it the common name of 'bloodsucker' (which it certainly doesn't do), but it actually eats aphids as well as nectar and pollen. They are indeed valuable pollinators.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

These soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles were so-named because a red species first discovered had the appearance of the British ‘red-coat’ soldiers’ uniform. They have soft elytra (wing cases) and are sometimes called leatherwings.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!