Over the past twenty years several native ladybug species that were once very common have become extremely rare (see details on the nine spotted ladybug pictured left and the two spotted too). During this same time several species of ladybugs from other places have greatly increased both their numbers and range. Besides being incredibly cool and charismatic ladybugs are also essential predators in both farms and forests that keep us from being overrun with pests (like aphids and mealybugs). In many areas the native ladybugs are being replaced by exotic ones. This has happened very quickly and we don’t know how this shift happened, what impact it will have (e.g. will the exotic species be able to control pests as well as our familiar native ones always have) and how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare.

You can help! - Find ‘em, photograph ‘em, and send ‘em

Here is how the program will work:

1. Go out and collect some ladybugs (see tips below and check out our handy Field Guide)

2. When you find a ladybug - photograph it! (see our tips).


3. Upload your digital images using our submission form (upload your images) along with the time, date, location, and habitat (e.g. garden, wild field, corn field etc.)



• The more the photos the  better! - even if they are all the same kind of ladybug
• Zeros are useful data! Tell us even if you searched and didn’t find any ladybug
• Data is most useful if you can tell us - where and how you collected, how many people collected for how long, the time, date, weather, and habitat

Why We Need You

To be able to help the nine spotted ladybug and other ladybug species scientists need to have detailed information on which species are still out there and how many individuals are around. Entomologists at Cornell can identify the different species but there are too few of us to sample in enough places to find the really rare ones. We need you to be our legs, hands and eyes. If you could look for ladybugs and send us pictures of them on Email we can start to gather the information we need. We are very interested in the rare species but any pictures will help us. This is the ultimate summer science project for kids and adults! You can learn, have fun and help save these important species.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. 0741738. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).