Timarcha tenebricosa
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa), also called blood spewer or blood-spewing beetle, is a leaf beetle native to Europe. T. tenebricosa measures 15–20 mm in length, is blue-black in colour and is both larger and more constricted on the base of its pronotum than the visually similar T. goettingensis (the lesser bloody-nosed beetle). The body is strongly curved, and elytra smooth and finely punctuated. Its antennae are thick and well segmented, its legs have long tarsi and terminate with a double hook.
Timarcha tenebricosa is monophagous; the larvae feed exclusively on bedstraws, especially species with tender leaves (such as Galium verum and Galium mollugo). The adult beetles usually move slowly on the ground, in the grass and herbaceous plants, mainly at night.
As a defensive behaviour, they exude droplets of their bright red-orange hemolymph by breaking thin membranes in their mouth, which is foul-tasting to predators. This phenomenon of reflex bleeding exists in some other insects, such as ladybugs.
Eggs are laid in spring on bedstraw. Larvae may measure up to 20 mm and are blue-black in colour. The pupae overwinter... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bloody-Nosed Beetle sighting in Pyrénées National Park on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 415th most-seen of the 1277 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bloody-Nosed Beetle in Pyrénées National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to March, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bloody-Nosed Beetle sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Bloody-Nosed Beetle sightings, Pyrénées National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Snowdonia National Park (United Kingdom, about 20%), Cévennes National Park (France, about 20%) and Mercantour National Park (France, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bloody-Nosed Beetle is recorded against all the insects logged in Pyrénées National Park (21 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
