Fourteen-spotted lady beetle
Its 14 rectangular spots often fuse into an anchor-shaped pattern, and its background colour can range from cream all the way to almost black.
| Where | Gardens, farmland, hedgerows with aphids |
|---|---|
| Size | 3.5 to 4.5 mm long |
| When | April to August |
It is a small ladybird with a cream, yellow or pale orange background colour and up to 14 black, roughly rectangular spots on the wing cases, often partly fused together.
Both adults and larvae feed on aphids, making the species a useful natural predator in gardens, hedgerows and farmland.
Traits
Habitat
Garden
Colour
Yellow, Black
Active
Day
To people
Harmless; beneficial predator of aphids in gardens and crops.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
22-spot ladybird is smaller, always bright yellow, and carries 22 small rounded spots rather than the 14 larger rectangular spots of the fourteen-spotted lady beetle.
Questions
Is the Fourteen-spotted lady beetle dangerous to people?
Harmless; beneficial predator of aphids in gardens and crops.
When can you see the Fourteen-spotted lady beetle?
The Fourteen-spotted lady beetle can be seen from April to August, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by URSchmidt, CC BY‑SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.