LADYBIRD BEETLE

also called Ladybug any of the approximately 5,000 widely distributed beetles of the family Coccinellidae (order Coleoptera). The name originated in the Middle Ages, when the beetle was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and called beetle of Our Lady. Ladybird beetles are hemispheric in shape and are usually 8 to 10 mm (0.3 to 0.4 inch) long. They have short legs and are usually brightly coloured with black, yellow, or reddish markings. The nine-spotted ladybird beetle (Coccinella novemnotata) has four black spots on each wing cover (elytron) and one shared spot. The life cycle requires about four weeks, so that several generations are produced each summer. The long, slender, soft-bodied larvaeusually gray with blue, green, red, or black spotsfeed on other insects and insect eggs. The larvae pass through four growth stages and then attach to some object and pupate in their last larval skin. Different groups of ladybird beetles usually hibernate each winter at the same location. Clusters of ladybird beetles are often gathered and sold to farmers to control such insect pests as aphids, scales, and mites. The Australian ladybird beetle, or vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis), was brought to western North America to help combat an outbreak of cottony-cushion scale (Icerya purchasi), which threatened to ruin orchards. Both the larvae and adults of the convergent ladybug (Hippodamia convergens) are important aphid predators. Although most ladybird beetles and larvae are carnivorous, several feed on plants and are quite destructivee.g., the squash beetle (Epilachna borealis) and the Mexican bean beetle (E. varivestis). The familiar children's rhyme Ladybug ladybug, fly away home/ Your house is on fire, your children do roam was a reference to the burning of the hop vines in England that took place following the harvest and cleared the fields but also killed numerous ladybird beetles. In folk medicine ladybird beetles have been prescribed as remedies for colic, measles, and toothaches.