Lady Bugs Aren’t Really Bugs… and 11 other interesting facts
1. LADYBUGS ARE NAMED AFTER THE VIRGIN MARY.
There are both male and female ladybugs, so why do we call them “ladies”? According to Oxford Dictionaries, they’re named after one particular lady: the Virgin Mary. One of the most common European ladybugs is the seven-spot ladybug, and its seven marks reminded people of the Virgin Mary’s seven sorrows.
2. THEY AREN’T BUGS.
Ladybugs aren’t bugs—they’re beetles. True bugs belong to the order Hemiptera, and these include familiar insects such as bedbugs and cicadas. Ladybugs, on the other hand, are part of Coleoptera, the beetle order. Many entomologists prefer to call them “lady beetles,” or Coccinellids.
3. THEY COME IN A RAINBOW OF COLOURS.
You’ve probably seen red ladybugs with black spots—but members of the ladybug family come in a wide range of hues, from ashy gray to dull brown to metallic blue. Their patterns vary, too; some have stripes, some have squiggles, and some have no pattern at all. And some ladybugs just like to make things complicated. The harlequin ladybug can be yellow, red, black, and almost any combination thereof, and it has any number of spots, from zero to 22.
4. THOSE COLOURS ARE WARNING SIGNS.
If you’re an animal, one way to avoid being eaten is to be toxic—or just plain foul-tasting. Many animals produce chemicals that make them taste gross, and they warn predators about their yuckiness with blazing bright colours.
Striped skunks, for example, pack a powerful stinky spray, and their black and white pattern serves as a warning sign. Highly venomous coral snakes wear vibrant red, black, and yellow stripes. Similarly, ladybug species with bright colours are walking billboards that say, “Don’t eat me. I’ll make you sick.”
5. LADYBUGS DEFEND THEMSELVES WITH TOXIC CHEMICALS.
Ladybugs won’t harm you unless you eat a lot of them (or in the rare case that you’re allergic to them). Many ladybugs produce toxins that make them distasteful to birds and other would-be predators. These noxious substances are linked to a ladybug’s colour; the brighter the ladybug, the stronger the toxins.
6. THEY LAY EXTRA EGGS AS A SNACK FOR THEIR BABIES.
Ladybug moms lay clusters of eggs on a plant. But not all of those eggs are destined to hatch. Some of them lack embryos. They’re a tasty gift from the mother ladybug; the newly hatched babies will eat them up.
7. BABY LADYBUGS LOOK LIKE ALLIGATORS.
When you think “baby ladybugs,” you might imagine that they look like adult ladybugs. But in fact, they are very much like butterflies when they emerge from the egg as a long, spiny larva that looks a little like an alligator.
8. LADYBUG PUPAE.
The next step in a ladybug’s life cycle is to find a nice spot on a piece of vegetation, settle down, and become a pupa, Protected by a hard covering, the ladybug then makes an transformation from larva to adult, breaking down old body parts and creating new ones until its ready for the next stage of life
9. ADULT LADYBUGS FLY WITH HIDDEN WINGS.
Ladybugs don’t look very aerodynamic. Their colourful domed backs are made of modified wings that are basically hardened armour. When a ladybug lifts off, it lifts up those protective covers. Underneath is another pair of wings that are slender and perfect for flight. Normally folded for easy storage, they unfold for takeoff.
10. LADYBUGS SURVIVE THE WINTER AS ADULTS.
We associate adult ladybugs with bright summer days—but they’re around even in the depths of winter. They enter a state of rest and group together, often in logs or under leaves.
11. THEY’RE VORACIOUS PREDATORS—MOSTLY.
Ladybugs are universally beloved, and one reason is that they’re a natural form of pest control. They eat plant pests like aphids, scale bugs, and mealybugs, and they have huge appetites: a single ladybug can eat 5000 aphids across its lifetime.
But many ladybugs supplement their diets with pollen and other plant foods. Some eat vegetation and fungi exclusively. The orange ladybug, for example, will eat mildew.
12. THEY CAN BE BAD FOR YOUR WINE.
Thanks to harlequin ladybugs, winemakers face a new and bizarre problem: Lady Bug taint.
Many vineyards are situated near fields of other crops such as soybeans. Ladybugs eagerly devour the aphids that infest those crops, but once the crops are harvested, the insects need a new place to hang out. Some of them move over to vineyard and look for food amongst the grapes.
But then comes grape harvest. The insects are accidentally scooped up with bunches of grapes—and when ladybugs are frightened, they squirt out a smelly defensive fluid. The resulting wine has a particular stinky flavour that has been likened to peanuts or asparagus.
