firebug or Pyrrhocoris apterus

The fire bug is a brightly red colored

Many young fire bugs and one adult. Young fire bugs are called nymphs.

Shield bugs on a plate of Brehm. These shield bugs or Stink bugs are common in Cenral Europe (1)

1 forest bug or red-legged shield bug or Pentatoma rufipes 2 Italian striped bug or minstrel bug or Graphosoma lineatum 3 assassin bug or Rhinocoris iracundus 4 syromaster marginatus 5 rape bug, the crucifer shield bug, the cabbage bug or the brassica bug or . 6 Firebug or Pyrrhocoris apterus 7European Tortoise Bug or Eurygaster maura 8 Black Garden Ant or Lasius niger and green aphids or Aphidoidea 12 Chorosoma schillingi 9 Grypocoris sexguttatus 10 red spotted bug or Lygaeus equestris

1 common hogweed, cow parsnip or Heracleum sphondylium 2 lime tree or tilia

Mertensian mimicry

The fire bug is easely mistaken for the “cinnamon bug” or “black & red squash bug” with an striking simularity in appearance. The cinnamon bug is harmless, and the firebug is only slightly poisioness, but produces a bad smell. This resemblance between two not relates species is called Mertensian mimicry. bears a passing resemblance to the Firebug – Pyrrhocoris apterus, but this bug only has two black spots and one main black triangle, the second The cinnamon bug or Corizus hyoscyami has four black spots on its back, the fire two.

Source

1: A plate from Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884 :Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine kunde des Tierreichs.