Seven-spot Ladybird

The seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) is a red beetle with seven black spots that is one of the most familiar insects of Europe and Asia. Both adults and larvae eat aphids, which makes the beetle a gardener's ally.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Seven-spot Ladybird in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Ecdysozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

The bright red and black pattern tells predators that the beetle tastes bad. When attacked, it releases drops of bitter, toxic yellow blood from the leg joints, a defense known as reflex bleeding, which contains alkaloids such as coccinelline.

A ladybird larva may eat hundreds of aphids before it pupates, and the adult eats many more. Ladybirds have been introduced to protect crops, a strategy called biological control. The seven-spot was brought to North America in the twentieth century and has since spread widely.

The harlequin ladybird, a larger invader from Asia, now outcompetes the seven-spot in many places in Europe and North America and also eats its larvae. See Natural selection.

• Pea Aphid — its typical prey
• Monarch Butterfly — another insect with chemical defense