The ladybird's bright colours are a warning to predators of its foul taste. When disturbed the ladybird will secrete small amounts of its oily foul-smelling yellow blood from its legs as a further warning to predators such as ants or birds.

Statistics
These insects are 5-8mm in length.

Physical description
These are small round beetles with three and a half spots on each of their two elytra (wing cases). The thorax is black with two white marks at the side, and the head is small and black. Larvae have lumpy grey-blue skin with yellow spots at the sides of their abdomens.

Distribution
Seven-spots are widespread and common in Britain and Europe.

Habitat
They inhabit gardens, woodland, hedgerows and meadows.

Diet
These ladybirds have a varied diet of small insects but favour plant-lice and aphids. They are known as the gardener's friend as they eat garden pests. The average seven-spot will eat more than 5,000 aphids in its year-long life.

Behaviour
Ladybirds will hibernate in large groups in sites which are used year after year. It is thought that pheromones are released by hibernating ladybirds which attract other ladybirds to hibernate in the same place. Ladybirds can be seen piled on top of one another while hibernating, the advantage of this is perhaps that less heat is lost, increasing their chances of surviving the cold of winter.

Reproduction
In the main breeding season, May and June, mating seven-spots are a common sight in our hedgerows and gardens. In her short life, a female may lay more than 2,000 small yellow eggs, providing she has plenty of aphids to feed on.

Conservation status
They are not listed as endangered on IUCN Red List 2000.

Notes
The name ladybird comes from the Middle Ages when the colourful insects were known as the "beetle of Our Lady". They were named after the Virgin Mary because in early religious paintings she was often shown wearing a red cloak. The seven-spots symbolise seven joys and seven sorrows.

In the summer of 1976 the ladybird population exploded in the UK. Sadly, because there were so many, areas of southern and eastern England were covered in millions of dead ladybirds who died of starvation when their food supply ran out.