Ladybird larvae

Ladybirds are often held with much affection as they are usually the first experience a young child has with close contact to a wild creature. Placing a finger against a leaf or a branch and encouraging the small beetle to climb onto it and then circumnavigate a little arm is a thrill to most children.

Here is a picture of a ladybird that has just crawled out of its larvae stage. Sadly I wasn’t able to take a picture of the delightful little wingless creature (one of the early stages of life of a ladybird) with a fairly long pointed tail, six legs and a few red/orange spots on its back. I remember being quite intrigued to find out that ladybirds like butterflies have several stages of life before evolving into a beetle.

A very young ladybird