Here’s a good-looking true bug that you might find any day of the year. The border on a Bordered Plant Bug can be red to light orange, and often shows up in a gradient of those colors.
Largus cinctus live on the U.S. West Coast and in a few Southwest states. They’re the only Largus species in the PNW. Adults live through the winter and may appear on sunny days when it’s over 50 degrees. The scientific name “cinctus” comes from the Latin meaning “to encircle,” so it’s descriptive of the deep orange outline.
Females lay eggs in the spring and they take about 100 days to mature. Sometimes, you may be able to see many of the intermediate morphs at the same time.
True bugs don’t go through a complete metamorphosis like moths or bees, but progress through a series of five nymph stages, each one a little bigger than the last. Largus cinctus start out looking like tiny red bulbs, then they have two stages cloaked in midnight blue. The final immature stage is the most stunning: It’s a deep metallic blue, with a brilliant diamond of red in the middle of the back. I’ve seen them in mid-July at Mount Pisgah.
Although some sources say adults don’t fly, an insect enthusiast from Texas posted on BugGuide that he raised a similar species, Largus succinctus, and that it could fly, but only a foot or so at a time.
Stay curious!
P.S. Don’t forget to check out Karen’s 2025 blog, The Daily Insect. Many of the featured creatures were photographed at Mount Pisgah.
See more of Karen’s work on her Daily Insect blog.
Sources:
Bug Eric on the Bordered Plant Bug: https://bugeric.blogspot.com/2014/05/livin-largus.html. Accessed 3/17/25.
Photo from Lane County with all five larval stages on a log: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1161478. Accessed 3/17/25.
All photos by Karen Richards