7 Spotted Ladybug

Description:

Adult ladybugs have convex, hemispherical shaped elytra (the hardened wings used to cover the soft flying wings underneath) that can be yellow, pink, orange, red, or black, and usually are marked with distinct spots. This is a type of warning coloration (aposematic coloring), thought to discourage predators. Lady beetles also have another defense: an odorous, noxious fluid that seeps out of their leg joints when the insects are disturbed. I can truthfully say, I've been fooling with ladybugs since I was a child but I've never noticed such a thing. It must be that the quantity of such fluid is so small as to affect only small creatures. Ladybugs, both adults and larvae, are well-known primarily as predators of aphids (plant lice), but they prey also on many other pests such as soft-scale insects, mealybugs, spider mites and eggs of the Colorado Potato Beetle and European Corn Borer. A few feed on plant and pollen mildews. One larva will eat about 400 medium-size aphids during its development to the pupal stage. An adult will eat about 300 medium-size aphids before it lays eggs. About three to ten aphids are eaten for each egg the beetle lays.

Habitat:

Seven-spotted ladybugs live in trees, shrubs, fields, homes and places where there are plants. The length of seven-spotted ladybugs depend on the environment around them like temperature, humidity and food. There are eight ways of seven-spotted ladybugs' feeding, feeding on mildews, mites, whiteflies, cottonycushion scale, mealybugs, armored scale insect, scale insects and aphids. Seven-spotted ladybugs are known as predators of aphids. Larvae eat approximately 400 aphids during the stage to a pupa. An adult eats about 300 aphids before laying eggs. It can eat 100 aphids in one day. Approximately, one adult eats 5,000 aphids during its lifetime. A seven-spotted ladybug has alkaloid toxins, adaline, coccinelline, exochomine, hippodamine and so on. Those smells are disgusting and make their blood unpleasant. That is one of ways to keep predators away from itself. A seven-spotted ladybug overwinters after being an adult. It saves fat in fall and eats the fat during the winter.

Notes:

In the United Kingdom, there are fears that the seven-spot ladybird is being out-competed for food by the harlequin ladybird. Conversely, in North America, this species has out-competed many native species, including other Coccinella.