I know that ladybugs don’t really have babies, but, seriously, how many people will read a posting with words like “larva” and “pupa” in the title? A more accurate title would be something like “Larva and Pupa of the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis).”
This past weekend I was wandering through a local garden when I spotted a strange-looking little yellow and black insect. Upon closer investigation, I discovered several more of them on the plant, along with some orange and black objects that I thought might be insects too, but they were not moving. This was a good excuse to take out my macro lens and to follow the old adage about shooting first and asking questions later.
After a bit of research, I realized that I had captured two different phases in the life cycles of a ladybug. Lady-bugs.org and ladybug-life-cycle.com offer additional details on the stages of development of a ladybug, but allow me to summarize for folks like me who don’t follow insects for a living. The ladybug’s life cycle is about four to six weeks long, with four stages (egg, larva, pupa, and adult). During the larval stage, the ladybug larvae shed their exoskeletons three times before the pupation stage begins. It is during the pupa stage that the metamorphosis takes place that is almost as magical as it is for butterflies and the insect that I photographed turns into a full grown ladybug.
Thanks to bugguide, I was able to identify my bug as the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis). The article notes that the larvae look like tiny alligators and grow to be larger in size than the eventual ladybug. It describes the pupa as “an elongated dome shape, usually found attached to a leaf, with the spiky remains of the last larval skin usually clinging to one end. The branched spines of this skin are usually visible.”
It was fascinating to discover the details of what I had photographed—metamorphosis never ceases to amaze me. Here are a couple of my favorite shots of the ladybug larvae and several of different pupa. Be sure to click on them to see more details.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Interesting-I’ve never noticed them at these stages in life.
I certainly had no idea that was what they were when I saw them. My eyes are really becoming very focused on details as I take more photos.
Very nice. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. One of the wonderful things I like about getting more serious about photography–and especially nature photography–is the incredible diversity that I am discovering that may have been present all the time, but I never notices.
Boy, the last of these disappeared from our backyard more than a month ago. It must still be fall in your area! Nice close-ups of the larva and pupa, Mike. You will have to go back and watch them emerge as adults in a week or two.
Thanks. It’s still fall here, Sue, though I had to scrape my windshield this morning for the first time this season and it was 33 degrees outside. I remember where these ladybugs are at and will definitely return to see them transformed (or it would be really cool if I could catch one coming out of the pupa, but that would be incredibly lucky).
That’s all news to me. Interesting.
I’ve been spending most of the last month or so with my telephoto lens–it was nice to go back to macro a bit. Trust me, it was it was all news to me. I honestly had no clue what kind of bugs I was dealing with. Fortunately it was not something with a menacing name like “assassin bug” (one of the other bugs I have photographed).
Very cool..:-)
Thanks, Ed. I definitely agree with them being cool. Some of the bugs I have photographed were creepy and some were pretty–these are cool.
Great find. Haven’t seen them here for weeks. Amazing pictures!
Thanks. I haven’t spotted an full-grown ladybugs in a number of weeks, but I’ll be back soon to see if these ones are still around (in a different form).
Let us know. I have’t seen any for a while. I have a blog I plan to post soon about swarms of ladybugs ready to hibernate.
[…] in the larval and pupal stage and discussed the phases of ladybug development in a post called Baby Ladybugs. Yesterday, I returned to see if I could find any fully developed ladybugs that had been in pupae […]
Fascinating insight into a microscopic world!
It really is amazing the tangents that I can go off on when I try to figure out what I have photographed. I have always said that I am intellectually curious and I am constantly being amazed by what I see and what I am able to learn.
[…] Here’s a photo from today of a ladybug pupa. I think that it is probably from a Harlequin Ladybug (Harmonia axyridis), a type that is also known as the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle. If you want to know more about the life cycle of a ladybug, check out the posting that I did last fall entitled Baby Ladybugs. […]
[…] Baby Ladybugs […]
Fun opening and fascinating photos and info, Mike.
Thanks, Jet. I have a lot of fun composing my posts and trying to come up with a quirky angle or a thought-provoking question is often a good way to grab a reader’s attention.