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Sticker of Malaysian ladybird
Bug card No. 2731 of 4,939

Malaysian ladybird

Chilocorus nigritus

The Malaysian ladybird is a little ladybird from Southeast Asia that is a champion pest hunter. It eats scale insects, tiny bugs that suck the juice out of plants. People have taken it all over the world to protect their plants.

Lives in
First from Southeast Asia, now in many warm places around the world, in gardens and orchards
Top speed
about 30 km/h (19 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a friendly ladybird that helps keep plants healthy.
What does it eat?
It hunts scale insects, tiny bugs that sit on plants and suck their juice.
For real!Photo of Malaysian ladybird
Picture by Ali M, Ahmed K, Ali S, Raza G, Hussain I, Nafees MA, Anjum SI (2018) An annotated checklist of Coccinellidae with four new records from Pakistan (Coleoptera, Co. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is one of the most important hunters of scale insects.

2

People brought it to Hawaii, Europe and many other places to fight plant pests without poison.

3

It used to have a slightly different scientific name, Chilocorus nigrita.

you asked

Most asked questions about Malaysian ladybird

?What does the Malaysian ladybird eat?

Scale insects, tiny bugs that suck juice from plants.

?Why do people release Malaysian ladybirds?

Because it eats lots of scale insects, so it helps protect plants without poison.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Chilocorus nigritus
Group
Ladybirds
Family
Coccinellidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Coccinellidae
Lives on
Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Malaysian ladybird beetle

Where the facts come from

  1. Chilocorus nigritus (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 Ali M, Ahmed K, Ali S, Raza G, Hussain I, Nafees MA, Anjum SI (2018) An annotated checklist of Coccinellidae with four new records from Pakistan (Coleoptera, Co. CC BY 4.0, 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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