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seven-spotted lady beetle |
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Coccinella septempunctata |
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| Taxonomy | Order: |
Coleoptera (beetles) |
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Suborder: |
Polyphaga (water, rove, scarab, longhorn, leaf and snout beetles) |
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Infraorder: |
Cucujiformia |
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Superfamily: |
Cucujoidea |
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Family: |
Coccinellidae (ladybird beetles) |
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Subfamily: |
Coccinellinae |
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No Rank: |
Coccinellini |
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| Status |
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| Nativity | Native to Europe. Introduced for aphid control. Escaped and naturalized. |
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| Flight/Season | Early spring to fall |
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| Habitat | Meadows, fields, gardens, houses. Any place having plants with aphids. |
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| Size | |
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| Identification | This is a The body is oval and dome-shaped. The head and thorax plate (pronotum) is black with a white or pale spot on each side of the head. The thick, hardened, shell-like forewings (elytra) are orange or red with 7 black spots. The spots are in a 1–4–2 pattern. The forward spot is spread over the junction of the two elytra. There is a white spot at the base of each side of the forward spot. |
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| Similar Species |
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| Larval Food | Aphids |
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| Adult Food | Aphids, thrips, mites, scale insects, and eggs of butterflies and moths. |
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| Life Cycle | Adults live for weeks or months, depending on availability of food. There may be 1 or 2 generations in a year before adults enter hibernation for overwintering. |
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| Behavior |
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| Range |  |
Sources: 7. |
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| Sightings | |||||||
| Comments | The term lady beetle is more appropriate than ladybug because bug refers to insects in the order Hemiptera. |
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| Synonyms |
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| Common Names |
seven-spotted lady beetle sevenspotted lady beetle |
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