Socialomg

Two horny Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles i think, their coloration can vary afaik, here you can see the same colours and patterns as those of your pic, but reversed, this time the male doesn't have dots, but the female does.

1. Male And Female Definition

The insects commonly known as ladybugs (or ladybirds, in the UK and other English-speaking nations) include a number of species from the Coccinellidae family. Ladybugs are the subject of nursery rhymes and are considered a good luck symbol by many. For example, the seven-spot ladybird, the most common species in Europe, is said to represent the seven joys and seven sorrows. Ladybugs can be male or female, and there are some ways of telling with the naked eye, but to be more accurate you would need to look under a microscope. And it helps to have some knowledge of where to look – but you can learn.

Determining whether a ladybug is male or female has nothing to do with the size or number of black spots on the insect's orange body. Both sexes have these spots. The male is generally slightly smaller than the female. The ladybug's reproductive organs share the abdomen, along with the digestive and respiratory organs.

Ladybug Markings

While their bright orange coloring and black spots make the ladybug one of the world's most identifiable insects, the color and pattern serve a purpose in nature. Other insect predators avoid ladybugs because many species of these colorful insects can release a bad-smelling chemical on potential attackers. Because of that, predators avoid insects colored like the ladybug, including those species that don't have the ability to spread an odor.

Ladybug Reproduction

After breeding, female ladybugs lay orange or yellow-colored eggs underneath leaves. These eggs hatch five to eight days later. The larvae consume aphids, also the adult ladybug's primary food, for the next two weeks. During this period, the larvae experience several molts. After the final molt, larvae attach to a stem or leaf and form a pupa. The adult emerges when the temperature rises, which is why you might see ladybugs out during a winter warm spell.

Photo Credits

• Thinkstock Images/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Author

Jane Meggitt has been a writer for more than 20 years. In addition to reporting for a major newspaper chain, she has been published in 'Horse News,' 'Suburban Classic,' 'Hoof Beats,' 'Equine Journal' and other publications. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English from New York University and an Associate of Arts from the American Academy of Dramatics Arts, New York City.

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Although it might be easy to think the adorable red bugs with black dots are all female, some ladybugs are males as well. The ladybug's misnomered name hails all the way back to the Middle Ages when a plague of bugs destroyed farmers' crops. The Catholic farmers sent out prayers to the Virgin Mary and named the red spotted bugs that proliferated to eat the pests 'the beetles of our lady.'

Who Ya Callin' Lady?

There is little to distinguish male from female ladybugs. When you see a pair, the male ladybug is smaller than the female. During mating, the male grips the hard wings of the female, remaining on top of her for up to two hours. Under a microscope, the male ladybug's attributes become visible. These include hairlike structures on the last segment on the underside of their abdomen, prominent bands between the segments and a notch on the posterior segment. Females have relatively smooth abdomens with barely discernible flexor bands, few hairs and a rounded posterior segment.

Author

Indulging her passion for vacation vagary through the written word on a full-time basis since 2010, travel funster Jodi Thornton-O'Connell guides readers to the unexpected, quirky, and awe-inspiring.

Male And Female Definition