Vedalia beetle
The vedalia beetle is a tiny, hairy ladybird with a red and black pattern. It is smaller than a grain of rice. It became famous because it saved orange and lemon trees from a nasty pest.
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Fun facts
In 1888 people brought 514 of these beetles from Australia to California to save the orange trees. It worked so well that it became world famous.
The mother lays her red eggs right under the pest bugs or on their egg sacks, so her babies find food at once.
One mother can lay up to about 190 eggs.
In hot places there can be twelve generations in one year.
When it gets hotter than 32 degrees, the females stop laying eggs.
Most asked questions about Vedalia beetle
?What does the vedalia beetle eat?
Only the cottony cushion scale, a small bug that sucks on citrus trees, roses and olive trees.
?Why is the vedalia beetle famous?
In 1888 it was brought from Australia to California and saved the orange trees from a pest. It became a famous example of using bugs to fight pests.
?Is the vedalia beetle a ladybird?
Yes. It is a small, hairy ladybird with a red and black pattern.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Novius cardinalis
- Group
- Ladybirds
- Family
- Coccinellidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America
- Also known as
- Cardinal ladybird
Where the facts come from
- Novius cardinalis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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