Sometime ago, it was the Halloween ladybug breeding season. They were all over the place!!!! What they were doing is finding a mate to mate with.
Then they lay eggs, the larvae come out, and then they molt 3 times.
This is the ladybug larvae:
They come out as wet adults from the last molt in a cocoon. Look at this ladybug trying to come out of its cocoon:
Then, they spread their soft elytra to dry and harden, and fly away.
Ladybugs are beetles. They come from Asia. They were first introduced here in 1888 because there were too many scale insects (close relatives of aphids) that did not have a predator. In my garden, we introduce Halloween and Seven-spotted ladybugs every spring so they can eat aphids that live on our iris flowers sometimes. (We do not have scale insects.)
We saw red, orange, yellow, spotted, non-spotted, and even black with red spots ladybeetles. They are beautiful, cute, and useful!
What a wonderful story about ladybugs!
I had no idea those little bugs are ladybug larvae! Thank you!
So this is what these are! (larvae) I also had no idea!…. When I lived in Minneapolis, ladybugs were hatching in huge humbers, teverything outside was covered with them…