4 minute read
The Budding Botanist: The Essential Ladybeetle
By José Flores, Invertebrate Biodiversity Technician
From pollination to decomposition, all insects play a vital role in our ecosystem. Although most of the work that insects do is too small and hidden to notice, paying even a little bit of attention to the insects in your environment will give you a glimpse into their world. Ladybeetles (more popularly known as ladybugs) are a fitting example of this, and they are a common sight in California. They can typically be found on plants. Despite their seemingly calm nature, the main job of a ladybeetle in nature is to eat things that can damage plants. Ladybeetles usually feast on other insects such as aphids and scale insects, both of which harmfully feed off the sap that keeps plants functioning.
A shiny red body that is sometimes decorated with black spots is the most common ladybeetle to see, but there are many more species. From red with black spots to black with red spots, and from a shiny blue to a pale white, ladybeetles are diverse critters. In fact, Southern California is home to over 50 native species of ladybeetles! Most are difficult to see without a microscope, but there are still a vast variety of charismatic ladybeetle species that you can easily spot. Below is a list of ladybeetles that you can use to keep track of the many common species in Southern California. In addition, use the guide on these two pages to learn some of the differences between similar looking ladybeetles. A lot of them do look very alike, so study the differences carefully.
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The convergent ladybeetle (Hippodamia convergens) has two slash marks on their pronotum and may or may not have spots. You can tell them apart from the Pacific five-spotted ladybeetle (H. quinquesignata ambigua) by their pronotum. This beetle has white markings on part of the edge of their pronotum rather than the entire edge and does not have slash marks in the middle of it.
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While spotless ladybeetles (Cycloneda ssp.) live up to their name and have no spots, they can be recognized in other ways. The western spotless ladybeetle (C. polita) has two white rings on its pronotum compared to the two dots on the blood-red ladybeetle (C. sanguine). The California ladybeetle (Coccinella californica) also has no spot but a black stripe down its forewings and has trapezoidal markings on its pronotum.
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Both of these species have a trapezoidal marking on their pronotum, but the California ladybeetle (Coccinella californica) is spotless while the seven-spotted ladybeetle (C. septempunctata) lives up to its name with seven spots. When most people think of “ladybugs,” they’re thinking of the seven-spotted one.
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Ladybeetles aren’t always red and black. The ashy gray ladybeetle (Olla v-nigrum) is typically grayish in color with three rows of black spots on their forewings. The twenty-spotted ladybeetle (Psyllobora vigintimaculata) is white with large brown splotches and distinctive black spots on their forewings while the steelblue ladybeetle (Halmus chalybeus) is blue and shiny.
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Harlequin ladybeetles (Harmonia axyridis) are a heavily invasive species in California, and in most of the world. They can include red, orange, and black colors and have many varieties of forewing patterns. However, all have a large spot on the edge of their pronotum.
