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Sticker of Sixteen-spotted lady beetle
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Sixteen-spotted lady beetle

Harmonia sedecimnotata

The sixteen-spotted lady beetle is a small ladybird in yellow and black. Its body is creamy yellow to light brown, with black dots on top. It is a little hunter that catches other tiny animals.

Lives in
Southern China, eastern India, Nepal and Southeast Asia
Length
6 to 7 mm (0.24 to 0.28 in)
Top speed
about 32 km/h (20 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting and is safe to watch.
What does it eat?
It is a hunter. It catches and eats other small creatures that live on plants.
For real!Photo of Sixteen-spotted lady beetle
Picture by Pudding4brains. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Sixteen-spotted lady beetle about 7 mm long (0.28 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 12 secondsmoves 1300 times its own body length every second

How big is Sixteen-spotted lady beetle compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Each of its two wing cases has eight black spots. Together that makes sixteen, just like its name says.

2

It also has two more black spots on the shield behind its head.

3

A grown-up beetle is only about 6 to 7 millimetres long, smaller than a pea.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sixteen-spotted lady beetle

?Is the sixteen-spotted lady beetle dangerous?

No. It is a harmless little ladybird.

?What does the sixteen-spotted lady beetle eat?

It is a hunter that eats other small creatures on plants.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Harmonia sedecimnotata
Group
Ladybirds
Family
Coccinellidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Harmonia sedecimnotata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Pudding4brains. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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