Lady Beetle Life Cycle

The larva hatches from the egg by biting a hole in it.

Lady beetle life cycle. Lady beetle description life cycle and predation. D the full-grown larva. The larva looks very different from an adult.

The multicolored Asian lady beetle Harmonia axyridis Pallas was introduced from. This dispersal trait is especially strong in H. Egg larva pupa and adult.

It begins with the female beetle laying hundreds of tiny oval white or yellow eggs usually on a leaf or in rotten wood. For example some lady beetles are predators while others are plant feeders. As adults most ladybugs live 1 year and can eat 5000 aphids in their lifetime.

There are multiple generations of these beetles per year. Adults mate within a few days after emergence. The diagram below illustrates the life of a ladybird.

Eggs hatch in about three to five days and larvae begin searching on plants for aphids and other soft-bodied arthropods on which to feed. Compare to most other insects the adult stage of ladybirds is very long in term of months. The egg larvae feed for two weeks on large numbers of aphids scale insects and other insects.

Females lay eggs in the follows weeks and the new life cycle starts again. After females lay eggs they hatch within five days. However all lady beetles undergo complete metamorphosis four distinct life stages.