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National Geographic Kids. (2018). Ladybug [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/ladybug/#ladybug-leaf.jpg

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Known as lady beetles or even ladybird beetles, these familiar round little beetles are well known in children's nursery rhymes and picture books.

The larvae do not look anything like their parents. They look somewhat like alligators with their long narrowed dark bodies and spiked projections!

Extremely beneficial to gardeners and their gardens, the adults and larvae will prey on aphids, spider mites and mealy bugs.

So...What's a Ladybug?

Ladybugs are also known as lady beetles or even ladybird beetles. In European countries they are referred to as "ladybirds." Adult lady beetles are round beetles measuring no more than 3/8" in length. They can be red, orange, or black in color with or without spots.

Larvae are said to look somewhat like an alligator in its shape with tiny spiked projections and orange striping on its blue or black body. Ladybug eggs are yellowish or whitish, oval-shaped and laying in clusters.

Prey of the Ladybug

The favorite foods of ladybugs include aphids, spider mites and mealybugs. They will also prey on eggs of some insects, particularly the European Corn Borer and the Colorado Potato Beetle.

Ladybugs in both the larval and adult stages feast on these insects. Interestingly, a ladybug will devour thousands of aphids in its lifetime!

Ladybug's Habitat

Many species of ladybugs are found throughout the United States, although one, the Asian lady beetle, was more recently introduced into the United States. Ladybugs are generally found in agricultural fields, orchards and gardens where their favorite foods, aphids, insects and mealybugs can be found.

In the Fall, ladybugs will gather in large numbers in places where they will spend the winter - usually under rocks, leaves, old fallen trees and any other location sheltered from the weather.

They will sometimes aggregate on the outside of a house in the warmth. If they venture onto or into homes, they may appear to be somewhat of a pest to homeowners, but do not harm them, since they are so beneficial. Take them outside when you find them inside of your home. You may want to seal or caulk cracks and around windows to prevent them from entering your home.

Benefits

Ladybugs, or lady beetles, are considered a beneficial bug which helps rid an area of crop-damaging aphids, mealybugs and other destructive insect pests.

The adult ladybugs feed on these insects. They also lay their eggs among the aphids or other prey so the emerging larvae can feed on the insects, too.

The only time they are considered to be "pests" to people is in the fall when the weather gets cooler, and the Asian lady beetles enter homes and other buildings in large numbers in search of a warm place to overwinter.

Vacuuming these beetles and discarding the bag may be the most effective method of removing these insects from your home. Remember, we don't want to remove them from fields, orchards or gardens since they are so beneficial.

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Known as lady beetles or even ladybird beetles, these familiar round little beetles are well known in children's nursery rhymes and picture books. The larvae do not look anything like their parents. They look somewhat like alligators with their long narrowed dark bodies and spiked projections!

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Most people like ladybugs because they are pretty, graceful, and harmless to humans. But farmers love them because they eat aphids and other plant-eating pests. One ladybug can eat up to 5,000 insects in its lifetime! Most ladybugs have oval, dome-shaped bodies with six short legs. Depending on the species, they can have spots, stripes, or no markings at all. Seven-spotted ladybugs are red or orange with three spots on each side and one in the middle. They have a black head with white patches on either side.

Ladybugs are colorful for a reason. Their markings tell predators: "Eat something else! I taste terrible." When threatened, the bugs will secrete an oily, foul-tasting fluid from joints in their legs. They may also play dead. Birds are ladybugs' main predators, but they also fall victim to frogs, wasps, spiders, and dragonflies. Ladybugs lay their eggs in clusters or rows on the underside of a leaf, usually where aphids have gathered. Larvae, which vary in shape and color based on species, emerge in a few days. Seven-spotted ladybug larvae are long, black, and spiky-looking with orange or yellow spots. Some say they look like tiny alligators. Larvae grow quickly and shed their skin several times. When they reach full size, they attach to a leaf by their tail, and a pupa is formed. Within a week or two, the pupa becomes an adult ladybug.

Ladybugs are happy in many different habitats, including grasslands, forests, cities, suburbs, and along rivers. Seven-spotted ladybugs are native to Europe but were brought to North America in the mid-1900s to control aphid populations. Ladybugs are most active from spring until fall. When the weather turns cold, they look for a warm, secluded place to hibernate, such as in rotting logs, under rocks, or even inside houses. These hibernating colonies can contain thousands of ladybugs.

The name "ladybug" was coined by European farmers who prayed to the Virgin Mary when pests began eating their crops. After ladybugs came and wiped out the invading insects, the farmers named them "beetle of Our Lady." This eventually was shortened to "lady beetle" and "ladybug." NASA even sent a few ladybugs into space with aphids to see how aphids would escape in zero gravity.

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There are about 5,000 different species of ladybugs in the world. These much loved critters are also known as lady beetles or ladybird beetles. They come in many different colors and patterns, but the most familiar in North America is the seven-spotted ladybug, with its shiny, red-and-black body.

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Tea Time with Tayla - Kid Songs, Nursery Rhymes and Educational Videos for Children

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Learn Ladybug Facts for Kids - Animals for Children on Tea Time with Tayla

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Do you have a pet Ladybug, and are wondering what it eats? Then welcome to the What do Ladybugs eat website.

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What Do Ladybugs Eat: Facts About Ladybugs

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People love ladybugs. And what's not to love? They're cute as a button with their teeny hard, red shells with black spots. It's even considered good luck if one lands on your hand or you see one in your home. Plus, they're completely harmless to humans. Farmers love ladybugs because they enjoy feasting on plant-eating insects like aphids, according to National Geographic.

But ladybugs are disappearing across the United States, and scientists don't know why. One theory is that non-native species, such as the seven-spotted ladybug from Europe ( Coccinella septempunctata) and the Asian ladybug ( Harmonia axyridis), have proliferated so successfully here that native ladybugs have been pushed out of sight. Another theory says those non-native species are due for a decline themselves, so the disappearance may just be part of a natural cycle.

Here are five little-known facts about these popular garden predators.

1. Technically, they're lady beetles, not bugs. What's the difference? For starters, bugs have needle-like mouth parts whereas beetles have chewing mouth parts, according to the Australian Museum. Plus, beetles have harder wings than bugs do (if they have them at all). Also, bugs have a mostly liquid diet and beetles don't.

In Europe, they're called ladybird beetles.

Ladybug spots - which some species don't have at all - sometimes look more like stripes. (Photo: tcareob72/Shutterstock)

2. They aren't all red with black spots. Though that may be the most common way to imagine a ladybug, it's not what all species of ladybugs look like. There are about 5,000 species of ladybugs in the world, National Geographic reports, including 500 in the United States. They also can be yellow, orange, brown, pink or even all black, and their spots - which some ladybugs don't have at all - can look more like stripes, as the above photo shows.

A ladybug doing its job: eating aphids. (Photo: Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock)

3. A ladybug may consume 5,000 aphids in its life. In fact, as soon as ladybugs hatch, they begin to feast. Ladybugs lay eggs - hundreds of them - in aphid colonies, and when they hatch, the larvae immediately start feeding. "Once hatched, the larvae eat about 350 to 400 aphids in the two weeks it takes them to become fully grown," the San Diego Zoo says.

But they don't just eat aphids - they also eat fruit flies, thrips, mites and other plant-damaging insects.

However, different species prefer different foods. While many prey on garden pests, some (like the Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle) also feed on the plant leaves mentioned in their names, making those particular species unwelcome guests in some gardens.

4. Winter is the time for a 'ladybug bacchanalia' (and hibernation). Aphids are more than just a food source, however; they also work as a signal for when it's time for ladybugs to mate. When the aphids begin to disappear, ladybugs realize that winter is coming and flock to ancestral homes that they've been to before for a once-in-a-lifetime-event of mating right before entering hibernation. After hibernating, the ladybugs may get in some last-minute special time with a mate, but then they head back to their homes.

A ladybug's spots are a warning to attackers: You really don't want to eat me. (Photo: Darkdiamond67/Shutterstock)

5. A ladybug's spots warn potential predators. The spots and bright colors are meant to warn would-be attackers that this beetle tastes terrible. "Ladybugs can secrete a fluid from joints in their legs which gives them a foul taste," National Geographic reports. (If you've ever heard that ladybugs can have stinky feet, this is why.) They've also been known to play dead, giving them a two-pronged defense system in a world of eat or be eaten.

Because of this, they aren't often preyed upon, however several insects, such as assassin bugs, stink bugs and spiders, may eat ladybugs, according to the Lost Ladybug Project.

6. The 'lady' part of their name is said to refer to the Virgin Mary. No, "lady" does not mean all of the bugs are female. Here's the backstory, courtesy of the Lost Ladybug Project: "During the Middle Ages in Europe, swarms of aphids were destroying crops. The farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help - and help came in the form of ladybugs that devoured the plant‐destroying pests and saved the crops. The grateful farmers named these insects 'Our Lady's beetles,' a name which had endured to present day."

This story was originally written in July 2016 and has been updated with new information.

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People love ladybugs. And what's not to love? They're cute as a button with their teeny hard, red shells with black spots. It's even considered good luck if one lands on your hand or you see one in your home. Plus, they're completely harmless to humans.

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Everything Ladybug! The source for Ladybug Stuff!

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Find everything ladybug here! ladybug facts, products, crafts, art & more!

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First-Ever Look at the Intricate Way Ladybugs Fold Their Wings | National Geographic

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There are eight parts to the ladybug anatomy, each with its own purpose. A ladybug is an insect, a beetle actually, and it has most of the same anatomical parts as every other insect, as well as a few parts that are distinctive to the ladybug. All ladybugs are less than ¼ inch long, oval or round shaped, and have six short legs.

Ladybugs usually have very bright colors, like red or orange, and often have some sort of pattern on them, like spots. These colors and patterns are thought to warn predators of the ladybug's bad taste and poison. Sometimes, though, the ladybug will be a solid color with no pattern at all, and can be yellow, brown, or black. The eight body parts are the head, antenna, eyes, pronotum, thorax, elytra, wings, and legs.

The ladybug's head is round and thin and includes the ladybug's mouth, eyes, and antennae.

The antenna is what helps a ladybug smell, taste, and feel its way around. Ladybugs don't see as well as they can smell and this is how they find the tiny bugs that they eat.

A ladybug has two eyes but it doesn't see very well. Ladybugs can only see the difference between dark and light, as if everything was a black and white photo, but they cannot see colors at all.

The pronotum is the part right behind the ladybug's flat head that sort of makes the head look round. The pronotum actually protects the ladybug's head and helps to hide it. Sometimes the pronotum will have spots on it, too.

The thorax and the abdomen, is the body section that the legs and wings are attached to, and the part that holds the ladybugs digestive system, the reproductive organs, and the stinky, poisonous gel.

Ladybug Wings are Hidden Under the Elytra

Ladybugs have a shell, or hard case, that protects their wings and also protects them from predators. The Elytra is also the part that shows the ladybug's colors and patterns to predators to warn them off. The Elytra is exactly the same on the right side as it is on the left, they are a mirror image, or symmetrical, to one another.

The wings are what helps the ladybug fly. Ladybugs don't seem to have a very good sense of direction when they fly around, though. They seem almost clumsy. Perhaps this is because of the wings being stuck underneath the Elytra all the time. Every time the wings are used, they have to carefully fold them back up to hide underneath the Elytra.

The six short little legs of a ladybug help it to walk, but they do more than that. The feet of a ladybug helps it smell, and when a predator captures a ladybug, the bad tasting and poisonous gel will ooze out of the legs, sometimes saving the ladybug's life. Wouldn't you spit that out?

Our articles are free for you to copy and distribute. Please give //www.ladybug-life-cycle.com credit for the article.

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There are eight parts to the ladybug anatomy, each with its own purpose. A ladybug is an insect, a beetle actually, and it has most of the same anatomical parts as every other insect, as well as a few parts that are distinctive to the ladybug.

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This video will explain the research project.

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1. What are the different stages of a Ladybug and how long are they in each stage?
2. What is the anatomy of a Ladybug?
3. What are 3 facts about a Ladybug that you learned from the reading?

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Everything Ladybug! The source for Ladybug Stuff!

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Find everything ladybug here! ladybug facts, products, crafts, art & more!

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Why are Ladybugs good for a garden? Post sticky notes with your answers.

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The ladybug life cycle is not much different from the life cycle of a butterfly. The ladybug goes through the same four stages as a butterfly, the egg

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2nd grade

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B. I. Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes:

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B. I. Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes:

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1. Using evidence to investigate questions.