Spot the difference

The ladybird, known collectively as a loveliness and named for the Virgin Mary's crimson robes, is a child's favourite and gardener's friend that comes in a host of polka-dot patterns, says Laura Parker

- Laura Parker

THESE days, with numbers declining dramatically, all insects need our appreciation. Yet some bugs are easier to love than others and none are more readily adorable than the children's favourite, gardener's friend and familiar logo the ladybird. Our fondness is revealed through how we have named them. We only have to consider the collective term for ladybirds: a loveliness. Neither avian nor all-female, the ladybird's curious name is an homage to the Virgin Mary, traditionally depicted in red robes. Its benevolence and ability to fly made it 'our lady's bird', together with a possible link between her symbolic number and our most common species, the seven-spot (Coccinella septempunctata).

Ladybirds are found around the world and in nearly a quarter of languages their names invoke the Virgin. In Germany, for example, they are Marienkäfer, the Mary beetle. Other appellations reflect their status as good-luck tokens that can make wishes come true or be encouraged to fly in the direction of an ideal lover. The little dome-shaped beetles, members of the Coccinellidae family, are revered not merely because of their jolly colouring, but for their helpfulness in delivering us from crop-eating pests. 'Plenty of ladybirds, plenty of hops', goes a traditional English saying. They have voracious and largely beneficial appetites. The seven-spot can eat 5,000 aphids in its lifetime, but not every ladybird is a carnivore, nor are they all red with black spots. Britain hosts 47 species of ladybird and 21 of them are barely recognisable to the layperson. Known as inconspicuous ladybirds, these are usually much smaller, plaincoloured and hairy, but, as biological controllers, they do just as much good.