Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park

Meet the Ladybird Beetles

Fast, ferocious and fun: ladybird beetles are one of the most recognisable insects in the insect world. These pretty beetles come in a range of colours, sizes, stripes and spots and are extremely useful in pest control at Sydney Olympic Park.

29 Mar 2023

About Ladybird Beetles

Most Ladybirds are predators of plant pests such as mites, aphids and scale and can eat up to 2500 little pests in their lifetime. Other ladybirds target fungi or plants. The life cycle of a ladybird consists of 4 stages: the egg, which is yellow to cream in colour; the mobile larvae, a pupae stage and adult beetle.

You may be interested in trying to find out how many you can discover - there are over 400 species in Australia and quite a few can be found at the Park. Let’s meet three of them:

28-spotted Ladybird Beetle

The 28-spotted Ladybird is a large beetle at approximately 10mm and is a plant predator, helping out by eating the leaves of the invasive weed – Common Nightshade Solanum ptychanthum. If you look closely, you may be able to see that this ladybird is quite hairy which matches their larvae which also has amazing spines.

Close-up of orange-coloured black-spotted 28-spotted Ladybird Beetle on a green leaf

Transverse Ladybird Beetles

Who said a ladybird must have spots?! The Transverse Ladybird is very common and recognisable by the black stripe running through the centre of its bright red to orange back and two sets of V-shaped markings present on either side. This ladybird is usually 5mm long and is a predator eating aphids, leaf hoppers and scale.

A red and black patterned Transverse Ladybird on a grass seed head.

Striped Ladybird Beetles

Striped ladybird beetles are the smallest of the three at 4mm long and, like the Transverse Ladybird, is striped with a bright red to orange colour. Three 3 black stripes run vertically down the back with the centre stripe occurring where the wings meet. This species is predatory on aphids in the larval stage but then the adults eat fungus particularly on grasses as well as pollen and nectar.

An orange and black patterned beetle on a grass seed head.