Seven-spot Ladybird
Coccinella septempunctata
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The archetypal ladybird — three spots on each side and one shared across the middle.
The ladybird everyone pictures: bright scarlet with seven black spots, three on each wing case plus one straddling the join at the front, and small white marks either side of the head. Seven-spots are common in gardens, meadows, hedgerows and waste ground throughout the Dumfries area, wherever aphids are to be found.
Behaviour
Both adults and the blue-grey orange-spotted larvae are specialist aphid predators, and a single adult may eat thousands in a season. The red-and-black warns of a genuinely foul-tasting defensive fluid, which the beetle bleeds from its leg joints when handled — reflex bleeding. Adults hibernate in groups in dry sheltered places: hollow stems, leaf litter, window frames and sheds.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Ladybirds (Coccinellidae)
- Size
- 5–8 mm
Photo by Photographer: Dominik Stodulski Graphic Processing: User:MathKnight, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons