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Ladybug Lifecycle, Vocabulary and Facts

Ladybug Lifecycle

Ladybugs aren’t so cute when they’re born—you may not even recognize them. They hatch from eggs and look like tiny alligators. The new bug is called a larva, and it takes about 21 days for it to grow up to be a ladybug beetle.

Eggs
Mother ladybugs lay ten to fifteen eggs on the underside of a leaf. They look like tiny, elongated, yellow jelly beans.

Larva
Larvae crawl out of their eggs and begin to look for food. Mother bugs make sure there are lots of aphids or mites nearby because the larvae will eat a lot of them before they become adults. They look like tiny alligators—and they bite!

Bigger Larva
After a few days, the little larvae begin to grow, and soon they shed their skins. This is called “moulting” and it happens several times. If you look closely you can see old skins clinging to leaves or to the grass in your ladybug jar.

Pupa
In about two weeks, the bigger larvae begin to look a little different, something like a lobster without legs and claws. They attach themselves to a leaf and hardly move at all. They are doing something extraordinary under their skins.

Imago or Adult
In another few days the ladybug splits its pupa and emerges looking very different. For the first few hours it’s pale and soft. Its shell quickly hardens. Its color becomes a bright color. Now it looks just like its mother—a perfect adult ladybug. What seems like amazing magic is one wonderful way the natural world works: ladybug metamorphosis.

Vocabulary

Antenna—A jointed, moveable part of an insect’s body through which it may touch, smell or taste. Antennae grow in pairs from insects’ heads.

Aphid—A tiny insect with a soft body. Aphids eat the sweet sap of many plants, which makes them sweet to eat, too. Aphids are one thing that ladybugs like to eat.

Chitin—The stuff that makes an insect’s exoskeleton hard—the stuff that ladybug wings and human fingernails are made of!

Egg—What tiny ladybug larvae hatch from. Mother ladybugs lay eggs on leaves near a good food supply.

Elytra—The hard covers that protect a beetle’s fragile wings. Ladybugs usually have red, orange or pink elytra with black spots. Some ladybugs have no spots and some have black elytra.

Exoskeleton—The hard outer covering of an insect or other animal that has no bones inside. Exoskeletons don’t grow, so ladybug larvae must shed old ones and grow new ones as they get bigger.

Imago—An adult insect that has completed its metamorphosis.

Instar—An insect in any stage between molts. A ladybug larva that has molted twice is in its third instar.

Larva—The immature stage of an insect that undergoes metamorphosis. Ladybug larvae are wingless.

Metamorphosis—A big change or several changes in the life of an insect or other living thing—for example, a ladybug’s change from larva to pupa to imago.

Molt—To shed a layer of feathers or skin. Ladybug larvae shed their exoskeleton (outer covering) at least three times before they pupate.

Pollen—The yellow powder made by flowers to fertilize flower seeds

Pronotum—Part of a ladybug’s body, located just behind the head, that helps hide and protect the head

Pupa—An insect in the stage between larva and imago. Pupae don’t eat. Ladybug pupae don’t move at all.

Fun Facts

• Ladybugs are a kind of beetle. Beetles are insects. Some scientists think that there may be 10 million different kinds of beetles, but only about 350,000 have been officially identified and named.

• There are more beetles on the Earth than any other kind of animal. In fact, one quarter (25 percent) of all animal species may be beetles! John Burdon Sanderson Haldane—a famous British biologist—once said, “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

• Ladybugs have a pungent, musty odor—like dead leaves but better! This odor is so faint that you can’t smell it unless you’ve got a lot of ladybugs (hundreds!) in one place.

• Ladybugs were named in England more than 500 years ago, when they were called beetles of Our Lady or Lady beetles. They may have been named after Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was called “Our Lady.” Or they may have been named in honor of an ancient, pagan goddess, who was also called “Lady.”

• In many countries, people think ladybugs are good luck. In Iran, ladybugs are called “good news” and in Switzerland “good God’s little fatty.”

• In folk medicine, ground-up ladybugs were used as cures for crying babies, stomach ache, measles, and toothaches.

• There are about 4,300 species of ladybugs worldwide—over 400 in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

• Ladybugs come in many colors—yellow, orange, pink, and red. Some ladybugs are black with red spots. Some have no spots at all.

• Ladybugs secrete a yellow oil from their leg joints that stinks and tastes bad.

• Birds don’t eat ladybugs because their bright colors are a warning that they don’t taste good.

• Wing covers are called “elytra” (elytron is the singular). Under their elytra, ladybugs have fragile wings so thin you can see through them. They are stiffened and strengthened by networks of black veins.

• Wing covers are made of stuff called chitin, just like human fingernails.

• When they fly, ladybugs flap their wings 85 times a second!

• An adult, female ladybug can eat 75 aphids every day (an aphid is a tiny bug that sucks sap from plant stems and leaves). A male ladybug can eat 40 aphids. Some ladybugs eat 5,000 aphids in the course of their lives.

• Ladybugs don’t chew up and down, the way people do. They chew side-to-side.

• Ladybug antennae have eleven segments and are used to touch, smell, and hear. Ladybugs also smell with their feet.

• In winter, ladybugs gather in big groups and huddle in crevices or under logs or rocks to stay warm; they rest and don’t eat.

• As many as 80,000 ladybugs will fit inside a gallon bottle.