Ladybirds have a round, often hemispherical shape with short legs which, like the small antennae, can be retracted under the deck and neck shield. They often have red, yellow, white, black and orange colours and are often dotted.
In Belgium and the Netherlands there are about sixty species with a size of 2 to 10 millimetres. The beetles and the larvae are often predators of aphids (which are often protected by ants because of their sweet secretions), but there are also ladybirds with a vegetable diet.
Most ladybugs live about a year. The number of dots says nothing about the age. The colour and the spots on the wing-cases do play an important role in the naming of the different species.
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