noun
definition
Any of the Coccinellidae family of beetles, typically having a round shape and red or yellow spotted elytra.
synonyms
Examples of ladybirds in a Sentence
In the Philippines, a cricket (Scepastus pachyrhynchoides), has taken on the shape and coloration of a species of Apocyrtus, a hard and inedible weevil (Curculionidae); and Phoraspis, a kind of grasshopper similarly resembles ladybirds (Coccinellidae).
Ladybirds are a most welcome visitor to the garden, with their rapacious appetite for aphids.
This is partly because of the presence of Cornish hedges and hedge bottoms which provide a habitat for natural aphid predators such as ladybirds.
Now, Coccinellidae (ladybirds) are known to be highly distasteful to most insectivorous mammals and birds, and snails would be quite unfit food for the Pompilid or Ichneumonid larvae, so that the reason for the mimicry in these cases is also perfectly clear.
Whether looking for ladybirds or watching out for water voles, wildlife watchers are standing up for wildlife!
Ladybirds are often brightly marked with spots and dashes, their coloration being commonly regarded as an advertisement of inedibility.
Whether looking for ladybirds or watching out for water voles, wildlife watchers are standing up for wildlife !