LADYBIRD (lady, with reference to Our Lady, the Virgin Mary + bird, perhaps a variant of bug). or LADYBUG. A beetle of the family Coceinelliche. Ladybirds are pretty little beetles. well known to every one, often of a brilliant red or yellow color, with black, red, white, or yellow spots, the number and distribution of which are characteristic of the different species. The form is nearly hemispherical. the under surface being very flat, the thorax and head small; the anten nae are short, and terminate in a triangular club; the legs are short. When handled, these insects emit from their joints a yellowish fluid, having a disagreeable smell. They and their larvae feed chiefly on scale-insects and plant-liee, in devour ing which they are very useful to agriculturists and fruit-growers. They deposit their eggs under the leaves of plants, on which the larvx are to find their food, and the larve run about in pursuit of aphids. Ladybirds are sometimes to he seen in immense numbers, which, from igno rance of their usefulness, have sometimes been regarded with a kind of superstitious dread.
Ladybirds are great benefactors to the Ameri can fruit-growers. An Australian ladybird (Fe dalia. or Norius, eardinalis) was introduced in 1580, to feed on the cottony cushion-scale of the orange and lemon groves of California. and in less than a year it practically exterminated the pest. It has since been introduced with equal success into South Africa, Portugal. Egypt, and Italy, where it has exterminated the same scale or a eongencric species. The two-spotted ladybird (Coceinella bigunetata), a black beetle with two red spots. which occurs all over the United States, is also of inestimable value in protecting vegetation from phint-lice and scale and other insects. One genus of ladybirds (Epi lachna) is herbivorous, and feeds on the leaves of the squash. pumpkin, melon, bean, and other plants. See Colored Plate of INSECTS.