DLC Blog

Beetle Juice

After returning from a fruitful weekend of intensive insect hunting at the Colockulum Reserve for my entomology class, I thought it might be fun to post about bugs, or I should say insects. Many of the insects that we refer to as bugs are not bugs at all, but are in fact insects. There is only one order of "true bugs", the Hemiptera, meaning "half wing". Everyone is familiar with Ladybugs, but they are not really bugs at all. In fact, they belong to the Coleoptera order and are in the Coccinellidae family, meaing "half spheres". Ladybugs are in fact...Beetles! Also commonly mistaken is their technical common name. In the scientific world, Ladybugs are referred to as Ladybirds or Lady beetles. Their spots are indicative of the species and they are commonly used to control other garden pests, such as aphids. The German word for ladybug/bird/beetle is "der Marienkäfer".

Posted by Kristina at May 3, 2005 01:10 PM in .