Ladybugs / Ladybird Beetles

Order: Coleoptera (beetles)

Family: Coccinellidae

How to identify:

Like most insects, ladybug/ladybird beetles have six legs and four wings. They are 8-10 mm long with an oval shaped body. The front wings are usually red to orange with black spots, but they can also be black with red or orange spots.

Advanced ID: labybug/Ladybird beetles are very dorsally convex and nearly flat ventrally, with 4-4-4 tarsi, a head that is partly or completely concealed by their pronotum, and short clubbed antennae between 3 to 6 segments long (Borror & White, 1998).

Ecology

Metamorphosis Type: Complete Metamorphosis

Geographic Range: All continents except Antarctica

Habitat: Ladybird beetles are considered generalists that can be found in grasslands, forests, along rivers and creeks (though not in the water), and in human-developed areas like agricultural fields, suburbs, and cities.

Trophic Level: Omnivore

Food: Although ladybird beetles primarily eat other arthropods (i.e., they are well known predators of aphids, scale insects, and mites), their diet also includes pollen, plant sap, nectar, and fungi (Alemida, et al., 2011). They use their mandibles to grasp their prey and tear food into smaller pieces.

Why should we care?

Human Uses: Because ladybird beetles are such strong predators, especially to agricultural crop pests, millions of ladybird beetles are released each year as “biological controls” to protect crops (Toknowinfo, 2012). This is a great alternative to pesticide use!

Conservation Status: Unfortunately, instead of simply releasing more native ladybird beetles, the USA has imported a number of non-native species to NJ and throughout the country. These non-natives are invasive, out-compete native species, and displace native species from habitats. This import and subsequent habitat displacement has caused some native species populations to decline (Weitz, 2017).

Furthermore, the non-natives (not adapted to NJ cold winters) now aggregate in masses that infest foundations and walls of private homes and other buildings (Moeller, 2017).

Did you know?

• Ladybird beetles are brightly colored to warn predators. “Aposematic coloration,” or warning colors, tell predators that a particular prey tastes bad or can sting. Ladybird beetles taste bad because they have a defense called “reflex bleeding” where they release an alkaloid toxin from their joints when attacked (Mitton, 2020).
• While the United States refers to these insects as ladybugs, other parts of the world call them ladybird beetles. Entomologists tend to prefer the term ladybird beetles, as they are not “true” bugs (i.e., they are not in the Hemiptera order).

Researcher’s Biography

Giana Vespertino
Completed this research within Dr. Shelly Thomas’ Entomology course

Suggested Citation:

Vespertino, Giana. (2022). Ladybug. Rowan University Arboretum. https://arboretum.rowan.edu/learn/explore-insects/ladybugs/