Dysdercus koenigii is a species of true bug in the family Pyrrhocoridae, commonly known as the red cotton stainer.

While migrating, they often feed on nectar from non-host plants and probe fruits with their rostra (beak-like mouthparts).

[2] The female D. koenigii usually lays three batches of seventy or eighty eggs in damp soil, under plant litter or in crevices.

[4] The adults and later stage instars feed on immature cotton bolls and on the developing and ripening seed.

By their presence in the bolls, they admit fungi such as Eremothecium gossypii which indelibly stains the lint.