In the wonderful world of nature you can meet a bright insect that is popular not only with children, but also with adults. This is a ladybug. Under natural habitat, yellow and red ladybirds are more common. On the backs of insects black specks are clearly visible. There are more than 400 species in nature. Area of distribution - everywhere, except in areas with a year-round cold climate.
What a ladybug looks like: description
Ladybug - a small insect, with a body size of 4-10, 11 mm. Refers to spotted bug beetle Coleoptera. The body has an elongated, oval-like or roundish shape. If you look at the top, the body is strongly convex, the bottom - flattened. On the surface, many species have well visible hairs - barely noticeable pubescence.
- head,
- front back,
- chest (including 3 divisions),
- abdomen,
- 3 pairs of legs,
- wings with hard elytra.
The front back of a beautiful beetle has a transverse structure, strongly convex, and a well is noticeable at the front edge.
The little head of the spotted bug is slightly stretched forward and fixedly aligned with the front chest. The eyes are large, not protruding, the antennae are very flexible, consist of 8 segments.
On the upper part there are specks of various colors and shapes, which do not appear immediately after birth, but after a couple of weeks have passed.
The posterior chest, unlike the front chest and the middle chest, which are extended across the body, looks like a square.
The cute insect has 6 moderately long legs, each of which consists of 3 distinct and one lateral segment. Paws help the bug to quickly touch each blade of grass and crawl through the grass. The abdomen consists of 5-6 segments.
With the help of the rear wings cute bugs fly. The front wings eventually degenerated into hard elytra. They serve to protect the hind wings while the insect crawls across the grass.
A variety of colored bugs emit cantharidin (dangerous poison), thus fearing from predators.
Beetle covers may be colored black, yellowish, deep red, brownish, or blue with black, red, yellowish, or whitish specks. All points have a different shape. For many bugs, they merge into one, forming flowing patterns. Some insects are completely absent. By pattern, you can understand and determine what sex a ladybug is.
The only enemy of insects is dinocampus. Even the bright coloring and specks and the hemolymph secreted by him cannot save the insect from apparent death. The fact is that dinocampuses lay eggs in the delicate bodies of ladybirds pupae, sometimes even in adult individuals. Developing, individuals parasitize and kill their master.
According to scientists, birds do not pose a danger to insects, since they emit toxic substances that are dangerous to birds. Bright coloring signals that the birds do not come near and scares them.
Where dwells?
Beautiful bugs spread across continents. They settled all zones. The exceptions are areas in which throughout the year the temperature does not exceed 0 ° C and Antarctica.
Insect can be found in all European countries: Great Britain, fragrant in the colors of Denmark, Sweden, France, Iceland. Germany, Italy, Poland also sheltered this bright insect. Ladybugs fly over India, Korea, the Islamic Republic, Japan, South and North America, Mongolia. The distribution area also captures Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia and even Cambodia.
In nature, there are many types of bright representatives of the world of insects, their classification is simply enormous, and each of them prefer special habitats and each of them has a specific role. Some species settle on those plants that are damaged by aphids. Others can be seen on the field and marsh grasses.
What eats?
Ladybugs mainly belong to insect predators. What does a ladybug eat? Favorite food - mites and plant aphids. With great pleasure, they eat small caterpillars, even woolly, pupae, eggs of moths, butterflies and the Colorado potato beetle.
What do ladybugs usually eat? The diet of some species is limited only to plant food: they adore the mycelium, pollen, flowers, fruits and leaf plates of plants.
Lifestyle
Ladybugs prefer to live "one by one", apart from other representatives of the species.
It is only during the mating season that they come together to continue their race. They also come together for flights and wintering grounds.
The ladybird can be called a baby-lover, so with the onset of the cold period, all insects living in latitudes with a temperate climate come together and fly away to warm countries.
Among insects there is a sedentary look. They do not fly away to countries with hot and dry climates, but gather in one place and overwhelm huge communities reaching 400 million adult individuals. If you calculate how much such a “ball” weighs, you can get a figure equal to several tons.
In order to shelter from adverse climatic conditions, the “suns” hide in the ruins of stones, also shelter under fallen leafy plates of shrubs.
Under good conditions and the availability of food, spotted bugs can live for 1 year. Under adverse conditions, the life of insects does not exceed several months.
Ladybird Larva: Transformation Process
An interesting fact is that the "suns" lay eggs near aphid settlements. Cycle development of the name does not last more than a week. When developing, it feeds on aphids daily.
Full maturation occurs by the second week of development. The time is already coming when one can observe the transformation of the larva into the pupa. After 7 weeks, an adult individual is born from the pupa.
If during the growth of insects do not have enough basic food - aphids to saturate your body, the bugs fly over to the territory of the beaches. During the flight, they even annoy people with their presence. Some complain of weak seven-point ladybug bites.
Why is a ladybird called that?
A whimsical coloring became the basis for the bug to be given the scientific name ladybug. In the people of a bug with fancy patches called differently. Cute nicknames say that people have sympathy for this insect. For example, in sunny Bohemia and Slovenia it is called “the sun”, in prosperous Switzerland and Germany - “the bug of the Virgin Mary”, Latin American residents - “the cow of St. Anthony”.
It is still not known from what sources the Russian name of this beautiful “Virgin Mary bug” went. Some scientists argue that this is due to the possibility of a bright bug at the time of danger to allocate hemolymph (“milk”), with which they scare off predators. And "god" means harmless, gentle.
For others, the insect was called so because it copes with the aphids, with its sticky secretions, thereby helping to preserve the crop.
Multi-colored bugs bring undoubted benefits. You can attract bright bugs in the garden, if you can not attract themselves, then you can buy in the store and bring to your site. Now, many environmental companies are breeding these cute bugs, so it will not be difficult to order them and bring them to your garden, where you can plant them on a prepared lawn.
Frequently encountered
- Two-Point Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata)
- Seven-point (Coccinella Septempunctata)
- Twelve-point ladybug (Coleomigilla maculata)
- Thirteen-point "ladybird" (Hippodamia tredecimpuctata)
- Chetral Radiata (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata)
- Seventeen-point (Tytthaspis sedecimpunctata)
- Asian ladybug (Harmonia axyridis)
- The cow is changeable (Hippodamia variegata)
- Mottled Cow (Anatis ocellata)
- Lucerne twenty-four-pointbug (Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata)
- Unaccounted Ladybug (Cynegetis impunctata)
The most common - seven-point ladybug (Coccinella Septempunctata). 7 - 8 mm in length.
Breeding insects
Fertilization occurs sexually. In the spring, females lay eggs from 5 to 20 pieces, and after a month, the larvae hatch from there, which are practically invisible on the plants. The larvae begin forming into a pupa, and after 60 days turn into a beetle.
The most dangerous enemy for this insect is the dinocampus. Dino camps lay their offspring in the pupae of the “cows” and even on the body of adult individuals.
Red Book
Ladybug has long been listed in the Red Book of not only Russia, but the whole world. The number of individuals decreased dramatically due to the mass destruction of aphids, which led to the disappearance of the main food source of the insect.
This beetle is one of the most ancient insects on earth. The "law" protects it from extermination, as this insect is extremely useful in agriculture.
Interesting insect facts
- Life expectancy in the wild from 2 to 3 years.
- In an adult individual, flap spots are lighter.
- Larvae have a fairly rapid growth.
- In particularly dangerous cases, it can pretend to be dead.
- Can live in rooms next to a person.
- Gardeners can purchase ladybird eggs to place them in their summer cottage.
- It is believed that they bring great luck.
- May have a strong toxic effect on animals with hemolymph.
- Ladybird is used in jewelry business.
- Larvae can eat their relatives.
- Some cultures strictly prohibit the killing of ladybirds, as this may be in trouble.
- Throughout life, can eat about 5000 aphids.
- During the flight, 85 wings per second are performed.
Ladybird brings great benefits for both man and nature in general. Reducing the number of individuals leads to a deterioration in the condition of not only plants, but also of nature as a whole.
Man must be more attentive to this little creature, since even this almost imperceptible creature is able to maintain its natural balance.
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Anatomy of a ladybug
The body of a ladybug has the shape of a hemisphere. From the bottom it is flat, and at the top is strongly convex. The size of this insect can vary from 4 to 10 mm. The color of a ladybird depends on its appearance - it varies from monophonic to very variegated. In total, there are more than 4,000 insect species of ladybirds. The most common color is a red back with black dots that can be from 2 to 22. A ladybug has six legs, two antennae, two big eyes, two wings and two elytra, which protect the main wings from damage on the ground, when the ladybird does not fly.
In juveniles, the coloring is brighter. With age, it fades. Protection of the ladybirds is a yellow, poisonous liquid that has an unpleasant odor, which they release when danger arises.
Family: Ladybugs
What feeds a ladybug?
Most of the representatives of God's cows are predators, and only a few species are herbivorous, which can only eat certain types of plants. Predators, on the other hand, feed on small insects such as aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, and sometimes they can even attack caterpillars. They also eat, not only these insects, but their eggs and larvae.
