lady beetles

Coccinellidae is a large family of beetles known as lady beetles, ladybird beetles, or colloquially as ladybugs. There are more than 6,000 described Coccinellidae species in 360 genera in 15 subfamilies worldwide, more than 480 species in 61 genera in 8 subfamilies in North America north of Mexico, and at least 72 species in 25 genera in 6 subfamilies in Minnesota.

Lady beetles are some of the most familiar of all insects. They are found from spring through fall, usually on plants. Some species are abundant and well known.

Lady beetles are considered beneficial. Three species feed on plants and three species feed on fungi. All other species prey on soft-bodied insects, mostly aphids and scale insects, but also insect eggs, mites, and small larvae. Some species have been used as biological controls of agricultural pests.

In the fall, lady beetles seek a warm dry place to hibernate. Many species congregate in large groups. They may shelter under bark, under a log, in leaf litter, or in other protected locations. This often includes crevices in window frames and cool corners of dark rooms. On warm sunny winter days, they may become active.

When attacked, lady beetles release a yellowish fluid from their legs containing toxic alkaloids that make them distasteful to predators.

Lady beetle adults are small, 1 ⁄32″ to ⅜″ (1 to 10 mm) in length. They are often bright yellow, red, or orange, with highly contrasting black markings, sometimes black with highly contrasting yellow, red, or orange markings. The bright colors are thought to serve as a warning to predators of their unpalatability. Some species are entirely black.

The body is broadly oval to nearly round. When viewed from the side it is strongly convex above and flat below.

The exoskeletal plate covering the thorax (pronotum) is wider than long and is distinctly narrowly flattened (margined) or keeled along the sides. The plate between the wing bases (scutellum), is small and triangular.

The thick, hardened, shell-like forewings (elytra) completely cover the abdomen. They do not have grooves or rows of pits (punctures).

The head is shallowly inserted in the first segment of the thorax and is partly or completely covered by the pronotum. The antennae have 7 to 11 segments and are always short, usually very short. The last 3 to 6 segments are weakly expanded into a club.

The legs are short. The last part of each leg (tarsus), corresponding to the foot, has four segments, but the third segment is minute and tucked within the extended lobes of the second segment, making the leg appear to have only three segments.

Sources

7, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82.

Coccinellidae was formerly included in the superfamily Cucujoidea. That family historically has been taxonomically difficult. A recent large-scale phylogenetic study of Cucujoidea (Robertson et al., 2015) analyzed the DNA from 384 species. As a result of the study, several subfamilies were raised to family level and one new superfamily was created. Coccinelloidea, the new superfamily, contains fifteen families of beetles, including Coccinellidae (lady beetles).

The term lady beetle is more appropriate than ladybug because the word “bug” refers to insects in the order Hemiptera.

Location: Westwood Hills Nature Center

At the Westwood Hills Nature Center, we saw some life on July 22 this year.

This was all found by the A/C Christian Church of Minneapolis.

Location: Albany, NY