Seven-spot ladybird
The seven-spot ladybird is the ladybird everybody knows: shiny red with black spots. Count them! There are three on each wing case and one in the middle, which makes seven. It is a hungry little hunter that eats the tiny green bugs on garden plants.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Seven-spot ladybird compared to YOU?
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How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its bright red colour is a warning sign for birds: I taste horrible, do not eat me!
A ladybird baby does not look like a ladybird at all. It is a long, dark grey larva with orange dots, a bit like a tiny crocodile.
Under the red wing cases there is a second pair of thin wings, folded up like a tent. They are much longer than the ladybird itself.
In winter, ladybirds sleep together in big groups under bark and leaves.
A radar study found ladybirds flying as fast as 60 km/h and more than a kilometre up in the sky.
Most asked questions about Seven-spot ladybird
?Do ladybirds bite?
Almost never. A ladybird may give a tiny nip if it is very hungry, but it cannot hurt you.
?What do ladybirds eat?
Mostly aphids, the tiny bugs that suck on plants. Both the grown-ups and the larvae eat them.
?How long does a ladybird live?
Usually about one year. It spends the winter asleep and lays its eggs in spring.
Myth buster
Myth: The number of spots tells you how old a ladybird is.
Truth: No. A seven-spot ladybird has seven spots all its life. The number of spots tells you what kind of ladybird it is, not its age.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Coccinella septempunctata
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Ladybirds
- Family
- Coccinellidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America
- Also known as
- Seven-spotted ladybug, Seven-spot ladybug
Where the facts come from
- Coccinella septempunctata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Photographer: Dominik Stodulski Graphic Processing: User:MathKnight. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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