Ladybird

 


What's in a name - Kieran Gonsalves (c) 2025
So tell me again, what’s in a name?
Is a ladybug and a ladybird not the same?
Just by chance, this morning l overheard
Talk betwixt said ladybird and a true Lady Bird
“You’re not what people say you are”, the ladybird said
“But how you feel in your heart and inside your head
Shakespeare spun a lot of stories, didn’t he?
But on this count, my dear,  you can trust me”


There's no difference between a ladybug and a ladybird — they're the same insect, just called by different names in different regions:
  • "Ladybug" is the term in American English.
  • "Ladybird" is the term used in British English.
Both names refer to the small, dome-shaped, often red-and-black spotted beetles belonging to the family Coccinellidae. 

They are beneficial insects, known for eating aphids and other pests in gardens and crops.

Fun fact: The bright red and black colours of a ladybug are a defence mechanism called aposematism - a warning sign for predators to avoid making the mistake of eating it because of their high alkaloid content, they taste bad and can be mildly toxic.

In a phenomenon known as Batesian mimicry, some harmless bugs have evolved to look exactly like ladybugs to benefit from this subterfuge. 

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