Ladybug

The red and black ladybugs are not only pretty, they are also considered lucky charms for us humans. They are therefore also called lucky beetles.

Characteristics

What do ladybugs look like?

Ladybugs are about six to eight millimeters in size with a round, hemispherical body. They are available in different colors such as yellow, red, or black, each with different colored dots. Depending on the species, they carry more or fewer dots on their backs.

The seven-spot ladybirds, which are common in Germany, have three spots on each of the two elytra; the seventh sits in the middle of the back at the transition from the pronotum to the back. The head, pronotum, and legs are colored black. The tiny head has two short feelers. Ladybugs have four wings: two skinny wings used for flight and two hard elytra that protect the thin-skinned wings when the beetle is not flying.

With their six legs, they are quite agile. The larvae of the seven-spot ladybird are elongated, bluish in color, and patterned with light yellow spots

 

Where do ladybugs live?

The seven-spot ladybug is very widespread: it is found in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. Ladybugs can be found everywhere: at the edges of forests, on meadows, and of course in gardens. There they live on plants. From time to time they also get lost in our houses and apartments.

What types of ladybugs are there?

There are around 4,000 different species of ladybugs in the world. In Europe, however, there are just 100 different species, in Germany, there are about 80 species. They all have hemispherical bodies. A well-known relative of our ladybirds is the Australian ladybird. However, the little guy has no black dots, but a black body. Its head is orange in color and its wings are brown and slightly hairy.

How old do ladybugs get?

The different ladybug species can reach different ages. On average, ladybugs live for one to two years, with a maximum of three years.

Behavior

How do ladybugs live?

Many people believe that the number of spots on a ladybug’s back reveals something about its age, but this is incorrect. Rather, the number of points depends on which species the ladybug belongs to; it remains the same throughout the life of the beetle. The seven-spot ladybug has seven spots, other species like the two-spot ladybug only two, and still others like the 22-spot ladybug have 22 spots.

Researchers suspect that the ladybugs’ bright colors and dots are meant to warn enemies of the toxins they secrete when threatened. Ladybugs are also very useful insects. The adult beetles, but especially the ladybird larvae, have a huge appetite for aphids. A larva can eat about 30 of these pests per day, an adult beetle even up to 90. A larva eats around 400 aphids during its development period, and a beetle up to 5,000 during its lifetime.

If it gets cold in autumn, ladybugs hibernate in leaves or moss. When it gets warm again in spring, they crawl out of their hiding places.

Friends and foes of the ladybug

Once newly hatched, ladybird larvae are easy prey for birds and insects. The adult beetles are sometimes attacked by the so-called ladybird braconids. They lay their eggs under the beetle’s elytra. A larva hatches from its burrows into the abdomen of the ladybug and feeds on its bodily fluids. Eventually, she also eats the bug’s vital organs, causing it to die. Adult beetles are rarely eaten, as they give off a foul-smelling and bitter-tasting liquid when threatened.

How do ladybugs reproduce?

In our climate, the development of a ladybird from the egg to the larva and pupa to the finished beetle takes about one to two months. After mating, the female beetles lay several hundred eggs, about 1.3 millimeters long, individually or in clusters of 20 to 40 on the underside of leaves.

They usually look for a place for the eggs near aphid colonies so that the offspring can find something to eat quickly after hatching. When the larvae hatch from the egg, they first eat the eggshells. From then on, they spend most of their lives eating aphids. As they grow, their old skin becomes too tight and they have to molt. After the third or fourth molt, the larvae pupate.

They stop eating and stick their abdomen to a leaf or plant stalk with the help of bodily fluid. So they sit still for up to two days and turn into a pupa. In the seven-spot ladybird, this pupa is initially yellow in color, slowly turning orange and beko as it develops.