We all like ladybirds. They are the colourful beetles that we sometimes see in the garden or in the park. They don’t bite or sting, they do a good job by eating the little insects who attack our garden flowers and are even quite friendly - allowing us to pick them up, if we are gentle, and then unfolding their wings and flying away when they have had enough of the attention.
You probably know already that there are different kinds of ladybirds. Most are red and black, but some are yellow and black, some are orange and black , some are white and black and some are black with red spots. They also have different numbers of spots on their backs. Some have two spots, some have five spots, some have seven spots, some have eleven, and so on all the way to twenty-four spots. It isn’t true that a ladybird gets more spots as it gets older - they stay the same number all through it’s adult life. All in all there are 47 different kinds of ladybird in Britain!
The photo at the top of this blog post is a seven-spot ladybird that I found on one of my apple tree’s in my back garden. It was sitting on that leaf when I found it. The seven-spot is one of the most common types of ladybird in Britain. Sadly this year I’ve only seen two so far in my garden, and it may have been the same one twice!
Where do ladybirds come from? Are there baby ladybirds? Well, yes! But they don’t look quite like the grown-up ones. Here is a photo of a baby ladybird I photographed earlier this summer:
Do you remember the famous story about the Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle? A ladybird also starts out in life as a little egg on a leaf and then, instead of hatching out as a hungry caterpillar, it hatches out as a hungry baby ladybird. Baby insects of many kinds, not just ladybirds, are called larvae, so we will use that word too. Ladybird larvae hatch out in late spring or early summer and eat the same little insects that the grown up ladybirds eat. A few weeks later, after a whole lot of munching, they make a house for themselves, just like the hungry caterpillar does, called a pupa. They stay covered up in this special house for about a week and then come out as a beautiful grown up ladybird. Here is a photo of two pupae (the word is different for more than one pupa) sharing the same stinging nettle leaf:
At the time I am writing this post, at the end of August, most of the adults will have emerged by now but you might still be able to see the pupae houses that they left behind if you look around carefully. The really interesting thing about ladybird pupae is that every different type of ladybird has its own style and colour of pupa. There are lots more pictures of ladybirds, nymphs and pupae that I have taken this summer on my tumblr photo stream so be sure to have a look there if you want to see more photos.
If you want to learn more about the different kinds of ladybirds you might be able to find in your garden or in the park then I would recommend two fold out poster guides by the Field Studies Council; Guide to Ladybirds of the British Isles and Guide to the Ladybird Larvae of the British Isles. They are small enough that you could take them to the park to help you recognise different kids of ladybird or you could put them up on your wall at home. If you are really really interested in knowing more about ladybirds then I would have a look at the UK Ladybird Survey website - it has lots more stuff about the ladybirds that live in our country.
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