Life Cycle
The two-spotted lady beetle's life cycle starts with eggs that are usually laid in clutches. The larvae hatches from the egg by biting a hole in it. The larvae look very different from the adults: they have elongated, grey, soft bodies with six legs but no wings. They are cannibalistic. Larvae go through four larval stages: by eating they grow and at some point they shed their old skin and appear in a new one in which they can grow more. The last larval stage is approximately the size of an adult beetle. Once it has eaten enough, the larvae attach themselves to a substrate and moult into a pupa. Inside the pupa, the adult develops. Finally the adult ecloses from the pupa.
-
Life cycle of Adalia bipunctata. Illustration from «Insects, their way and means of living», R. E. Snodgrass
-
Spotted lady beetles mating
-
Larva
-
Pupa
-
The adult beetle
Read more about this topic: Adalia Bipunctata
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or cycle:
“The minutes wing’d their way wi’ pleasure:
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious!”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)