Ladybird Life Cycle (Teacher Support)

Introduction

Aotearoa New Zealand has about 40 species of ladybirds, with more than half of them native and relatively inconspicuous, while the brighter, more conspicuous ones like the elevenspotted ladybird, are introduced. They are important predators of pests like aphids, mealybugs, scale insects and mites. An adult can eat up to 100 aphids a day, while their grubs (proper name, larvae) can eat up to 50. Both adults and larvae release drops of bitter 'blood' from their 'knee' joints making them poisonous to birds, and by association, the bright colours act as a warning to birds not to eat them.

Answers to student's Ladybird Life Cycle Info sheet

Relates to: Ladybird Life Cycle Info Sheet

1. Shape oval, colour yellow.
2. Eggs are laid in a group or cluster. Extra information: Eggs can be laid under leaves and stems or in the soil.
3. The eggs are probably about 0.5–1.0 mm long judging by the adult that visits the eggs (whose body might be 5–7 mm long).
4. Changes to egg: They become darker, then just before the larvae emerge they turn white and swell.
5. Their first meal is an unfertilised egg laid by their mother.
6. Larvae are more elongated, flatter, darker in colour and don't have any wing covers.
7. Larvae like to eat aphids. Extra information: They also eat mealybugs, scale insects and mites.
8. After several moults the larvae turn into pupae.
9. The pupa stage lasts about 30 days.
10. Cream/yellow. Orange and black.
11. To 'warn' predators that they wouldn't taste good, so "Don't bother trying to eat me!".
12. Over 5000 species worldwide.
13. The adult is eating an aphid. Both the adults and larvae feed by chewing their prey.
14. During cold conditions they hibernate.
15. The wings are folded neatly under their wing covers.
16. Both ladybirds and butterflies have four stages to their life cycles: a) egg, b) larva (that goes through several moults and doesn't look like the adult), c) pupa (a resting and reorganisation stage), and d) adult (winged to aid dispersal).

Research answers

Upon research students should find that "Ladybird, ladybird fly away home ...." is a rhyme born out of a chant used before the burning of hop plants at the end of the English harvest season. Farmers recognised the importance of ladybirds and their grubs (proper name larvae) in keeping pests like aphids under control, so the chant was to implore them to escape the hop plants before they were burnt.

More detail about the history of the rhyme

Related resources

Ladybird Life Cycle Info

Ladybird/Mumutawa Spotter

Selected ladybird fact sheets from Landcare Research (for more advanced research):

Harlequin ladybird – Harmonia axyridis

Large spotted ladybird - Harmonia conformis

Loew's ladybird - Scymnus loewii

Scale-eating ladybird - Rhyzobius fagus

Two-spotted ladybird - Adalia bipunctata

Steelblue ladybird - Halmus chalybeus

Eleven-spotted ladybird - Coccinella undecimpunctata

Thumbnail photo credit: Coccinella_magnifica, Gilles-San-Martin, cc-by-sa-2.0