Immature Large Milkweed Bug part of experiment

Red and Black bug
March 7, 2010
I am doing these bugs as an experiment and I am having difficulty identifying them. They are being raised in a petri dish and eat water and sunflower seeds.
Cassalyn Sands
North Carolina

Immature Large Milkweed Bug

Hi Cassalyn,
You didn’t really indicate the nature of your experiment, and if sunflower seeds are a necessary component.  This is an immature Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, and milkweed, not sunflower, is its food of choice.  According to BugGuide:  They eat the “Seeds of milkweed plants.“

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