Cycloneda sanguinea

Spotless lady beetle

Unlike most lady beetles, adults of this species carry no spots on their glossy orange-red wing covers, making the plain color itself the identifying clue.

Where	Gardens, crop fields, open vegetation
Size	4 to 6.5 mm body length
When	February to November

The spotless lady beetle has smooth, shiny wing covers ranging from orange to deep red with no spots, aside from a pale mark sometimes visible just behind the thorax. Each side of the black thorax carries an isolated pale yellow or white spot fully ringed by black, and the body is domed like other lady beetles, measuring about 4 to 6.5 mm long.

Both the larvae and adults hunt aphids and other soft-bodied insects, with a single adult female consuming roughly 300 aphids over her lifetime and each larva eating hundreds more as it develops. Several generations are produced each year in gardens, crop fields and wild vegetation wherever aphids are abundant.

Traits

Habitat

Garden

Colour

Orange, Red, Black

Active

Day

To people

Harmless to people; adults and larvae feed only on aphids and other soft-bodied insects.

Activity through the year

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Often confused with

Polished lady beetlenot in guide

Cycloneda munda

Carries a similarly shiny orange-red wing cover, but the pale mark on each side of its black thorax forms a C shape or a full ring instead of the isolated spot fully surrounded by black seen in the Spotless lady beetle.