Lady beetles or ladybugs are more diverse than you might think! These beetles are not just red and black. There are thousands of species with different colors, patterns, and shapes. Each has its own unique beauty. Here are 25 types of ladybugs you might know.
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Two-spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata)
The 2-spot ladybird is a common sight in the UK and Ireland, especially in the southern areas and places like cities and coastal regions. It’s easily recognized by its red body with two black spots on its wings, though it can also appear in different colors like black with red spots. Sometimes, the black version of this ladybird can be mistaken for other types like the 10-spot ladybird or the Pine ladybird.
Unfortunately, the population of 2-spot ladybirds has been decreasing lately. One reason is the invasion of the harlequin ladybird, which not only eats the eggs, larvae, and pupae of the 2-spot ladybird but also shares its food sources like aphids.
Seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata)
The seven-spot ladybird is one of the most popular types of ladybugs found in Europe and North America. You can easily spot it by its red wings with seven black spots and its black-and-white-patterned head. These ladybirds like to hang out in woodlands, parks, and hedgerows. They can live in lots of different places, as long as there are aphids for them to munch on.
In some places, this ladybird holds special significance. It’s the national insect of Finland and is also the official state insect in five different states in the US.
Nine-spotted lady beetle (Coccinella novemnotata)
The nine-spotted ladybird beetle is a type of ladybug found in North America. It has four black spots on each reddish-orange wing and one shared spot, making a total of nine spots. This beetle is known for its classic ladybug color pattern. Sadly, their numbers are decreasing, and no one has seen them in the Northeast since 1992.
Ten-spotted ladybird (Adalia decempunctata)
The ten-spot ladybird is a small, round bug, only about 3.5-4.5 mm long. It lives in the UK and hangs out on trees and bushes in forests and cities.
These ladybugs can look different. Some are red, some are black, and they can have anywhere from 0 to 15 spots. Usually, they’re orange-red with 0 to 15 black spots. There are six spots in a row down the middle and one on each shoulder. The part behind their head is white with dark spots that might blend together.
They might seem like the two-spot ladybird, but you can tell them apart by looking at their legs. The ten-spot ladybird always has brown, orange, or light legs, while the two-spot ladybird’s legs are always black.
Thirteen-spot ladybeetle (Hippodamia tredecimpunctata)
The thirteen-spot ladybird is a native insect found in North America. It has reddish-orange wings with thirteen black spots. You can spot them mainly in wet areas like meadows, marshes, lake shores, and flood plains. They are most active from May to September. Sadly, the population of the thirteen-spot ladybird is decreasing. In Canada, it’s in critical condition in Prince Edward Island and at risk in Nova Scotia.
This ladybird is often mistaken for other similar bugs like the Asian Lady Beetle, Nine-spotted Lady Beetle, and Five-spotted Lady Beetle. But you can tell them apart by looking at their features: they have a black head with a pale to yellow mark between the eyes, a black pronotum with a thick pale to yellow border around the sides and front, and their wings are yellow to orange with 13 black spots.
Pink spotted lady beetle (Coleomegilla maculata)
This type of ladybug is native to North America and is commonly found in the eastern two-thirds of the US, including Missouri. It’s active in Missouri from April to October most years. These ladybugs are predators that eat aphids, aphid honeydew, mites, insect eggs, other soft-bodied insects, plant nectar, and pollen.
Adults of this ladybug are teardrop or oval-shaped and about ¼ inch long. They have six black spots on each forewing and two roughly triangular spots on the shield behind their head. The larvae look like alligators, with dark bodies, three pairs of legs, and faded yellow or pink spots near the third pair of legs and in a band around the middle of their abdomen.
Fourteen-spotted ladybug (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata)
The Fourteen-spotted ladybug is a small beetle found in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia and Africa. It’s known for its unique spotted wings, usually with 14 spots. These spots can vary in size and often fuse together, creating larger markings. The background color of the wings ranges from cream to yellow to orange. The pronotum, which is like its “neck,” is whitish or pale yellow with four to eight black spots. Its antennae and legs are yellowish-brown.
Fifteen-spotted lady beetle (Anatis labiculata)
The next type of ladybug is the fifteen-spotted ladybug. This beetle comes from North America, usually found in forests from April to July. It comes in different colors, like light gray to dark purple, with black spots. Its shell can be orange, gray, or even deep purple or black, and they have 15 black spots in total. The pronotum, the part right behind its head, is white with a black “M” shape in the middle. As the beetle gets older, it gets darker, and sometimes the spots on its back blend in with the rest of its shell, making them hard to see.
Eighteen-spotted ladybird (Calvia quatuordecimguttata)
The eighteen-spotted ladybug, also known as the cream-spotted ladybird or polkadot ladybird, is a tiny insect, about 4 to 5 millimeters long. It lives in hedgerows and deciduous trees. This ladybug has reddish-brown to black wings with cream spots, usually 14 of them. But in North America, it can have different colors, like black with white spots, yellow to pink with 18 big spots, or even all black with red-orange patches.
Originally from Europe and the East Palearctic, the cream-spot ladybird has been brought to North America to help control pests.
Twenty-spotted lady beetle (Psyllobora vigintimaculata)
The twenty-spotted lady beetle, also known as the “Wee-tiny Ladybug,” is a native bug in North America. It mainly eats fungus, especially mildew, and is often seen on plants with powdery mildew. You can find it throughout most of North America, except for Florida and the far north of Canada, even up in Alaska.
This little bug is about 3-4 mm long, with a bright tan or yellow-orange shell covered in 20 spots. These spots form a kind of “M” shape on its back. Its wings have black spots on a white background, sometimes with orange patches too. Its legs are light orange, and its head is white or pale with a black patch at the top.
In some places, like Indiana, it’s considered vulnerable, while in Saskatchewan, it’s seen as imperiled. Its status varies in different parts of Canada.
Ashy gray lady beetle (Olla v-nigrum)
The ashy gray lady beetle is small, only about 1/6 to 1/4 inch (4-6 mm) long, and has a round body. This type of lady beetle can look different depending on its color. It might be gray or pinkish-gray with lots of small dark spots, black with two big reddish-orange spots, or gray or pinkish-gray with two big dark spots.
The ashy gray lady beetle is found in Central and North America, and Oceania. You can find it in North and Central America, and Oceania.
24-spot ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata)
The 24-spot ladybird is an easily recognized type of ladybug by its round shape and bright orange-red color with black spots. It can have anywhere from 20 to 26 spots, and sometimes spots join together or are missing. When they’re young, they’re small and light green with spiky bits sticking out.
These ladybirds love to eat fungal molds on plants like False Oat-grass and Red Campion. They live in Europe, the Middle and East Asia, North Africa, and European Russia. You’ll often find them in meadows, rough grasslands, scrubs, marshes, and sandy coastal areas.
Asian ladybug (Harmonia axyridis)
The Asian lady beetle, also called the Harlequin ladybug, orange ladybug, Japanese or Chinese ladybug, is originally from Asia but was brought to the United States in the late 20th century to control pests in farms. It’s good because it eats aphids and other pests, but sometimes it gathers in big groups on sunny sides of buildings, especially in fall when it looks for places to spend the winter. You can tell it apart from other ladybugs by the white “M” or “W” shape on its head.
While these species are harmless to humans, they can release a stinky smell and leave yellow stains if they’re disturbed, which can be annoying. These invasive species might overcome the winter in your house, like attics, walls, or other cozy spots.
Spotless lady beetle (Cycloneda sanguine)
The spotless lady beetle is a common type of ladybug found throughout the Americas. It’s especially widespread in Latin America, from the southern United States down to Argentina, and even out to the Cayman Islands.
They’re often mistaken for other species like C. munda and C. polita. These 2 species have no spots on their wings. These spotless ladybugs are pretty big and have red wings, raninging from orange to deep red. As adults, they are quite small, measuring between 1/6 to almost 5/16 inch (4–6.5 mm) in length.
You can easily spot them by the white and black markings on their head and pronotum, which are different for males and females. Females have black in the center, while males have a white cleft above their head and a white face.
Yellow-shouldered ladybird (Apolinus lividigaster)
The yellow-shouldered ladybird is a tiny beetle (3-4mm in size) found in Australia and New Zealand. It’s easy to recognize with its black body and yellow patches on each side. The larvae of this black and yellow beetle have long, sharp jaws and are a bit elongated, feeding on Cowpea Aphids.
22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata)
This bug is found in North America, Europe, and Asia. It’s called the “22-spot” because it has 22 spots on its yellow wings and black back. It eats both plants and animals, especially mildew and aphids. You can usually spot it in wet grasslands and meadows.
Steelblue ladybird (Halmus chalybeus)
The insect comes from Australia but was brought to New Zealand to help control pests. Among thousands of different kinds of ladybugs, this species stands out with its gorgeous shiny blue color with black spots on its back. It’s pretty small, usually about 3 to 4 millimeters long.
Pine ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus)
The black ladybug or pine ladybird is a small insect commonly seen in the UK and other places. It’s black with four red spots, two of them shaped like commas. You can recognize it by these unique spots and the rim around its wings.
This ladybird eats scale insects and woolly aphids. During winter, it stays in leaf litter. You can find it on different types of trees, both deciduous and coniferous. But be careful not to touch it because it can cause allergic reactions due to its toxicity.
Convergent lady beetle (Hippodamia convergens)
This beetle is native to North America and can be found all over the continent, from Canada down to Central America. It stands out with its vibrant red or orange hard forewings that have 12 black spots. Its body features a black area at the front with a white outline and two white lines that converge.
Striped ladybird (Paranaemia vittigera)
The Striped Ladybug is a type of beetle found in North America, mainly in places like Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, California, and Texas. These little bugs are colorful and small, usually around 4.5 to 6.6 millimeters long. They come in bright shades of red, yellow, or orange and have black stripes going down their backs. This sets them apart from the usual spotted ladybugs you might see.
Transverse ladybird (Coccinella transversalis)
This is a type of ladybug that lives in Australia, India, and Europe. These beetles are small, usually around 3.8 to 6.7 millimeters long. They have a black head and mostly bright red or orange wings. Their wings have a black line in the middle and two lateral three-lobed markings on the sides.
Eyed ladybug (Anatis ocellata)
This species is a big type of ladybird that lives in pine forests, especially where there are aphids. It’s easy to spot because it has a red or orange body with black spots and a yellowish ring around it. This ladybird can be found in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Mealybug ladybird (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri)
The mealybug destroyer is a type of ladybug beetle originally from eastern Australia. Adults are around 3 mm long, with a dark brown body and a tan-to-orange head and rear end. The larvae look like mealybugs and are covered in wax, which helps them find and hunt their prey.
Large leaf-eating ladybird (Epilachna guttatopustulata)
The large leaf-eating ladybird is a big beetle with colorful markings. Adults are usually 7-9 mm long, with black forewings that have three spots – two reddish-brown and one yellow or yellowish-brown. The top part of its thorax called the pronotum, is also black, while the sides of the prothorax are yellow or yellowish-brown.
It’s much larger than most lady beetles and is commonly found in Queensland, New South Wales, and some equatorial islands. This ladybird is a plant-eater, munching on the leaves of solanaceous plants. It can cause significant damage to crops by eating foliage and spreading diseases from one plant to another.
Kidney-spot ladybird (Chilocorus renipustulatus)
Last but not least, the Kidney-spot ladybird. This species is a tiny bug (4-5mm long) you might spot in forests, especially on tree trunks. It’s easy to recognize with its black body sporting big red spots on its wings, along with orange antennae and underside. This little bug measures stands out with a distinctive rim around its wing covers.
The Kidney-spot Ladybird mainly eats scale insects found on tree bark. During winter, it hides in protected spots on deciduous trees, such as willow, ash, alder, apple trees, sallow, field maple, birch, oak, and Leyland cypress. You can often find this black ladybug with red spots in England and Wales.
These are 24 different types of ladybugs, from the iconic spotted ladybird to the less conspicuous ones like the striped or ashy grey ladybug. So, the next time you see a ladybug in your garden, take a close look! You might recognize which species it is.
