Here's the entire life cycle of the Asian Ladybird Beetle, from mating, through the egg, larval, and pupal stage to the eclosion of a new beetle.

Some ladybugs hibernate in the winter. The beetles aggregate in large numbers to spend the winter in protected areas such as under branches or rocks.

Gardeners love ladybugs because they are predators of plant pests such as scale insects, white flies, mites, and aphids.

A close-up of the face of a ladybug.

This is the underside of an adult ladybug.

A ladybug getting ready to fly away. You can see what the abdomen looks like underneath the wings.

7-spot Ladybirds mating.

This is what the eggs of the 7-spot Ladybird look like.

This second instar larva has recently molted. To the left is a piece of the shed first instar skin.

A 3rd instar larva molting into a 4th (last) instar larva.

Ladybug larvae look like little dragons.

Ladybug larvae feed and grow for about a month and eat hundreds of aphids abd other insects during this stage.

Ladybug larvae are sometimes cannibalistic. A hungry ladybug larva will eat any soft-bodied insect it encounters, even another ladybug larva.

A ladybug larva getting ready to pupate.

This is a picture of a ladybug pupa. Where the pupa is attached to the leaf, you can see the shed skin of the last larval instar.

This is freshly eclosed ladybugs. The wing covers are still soft and are still developing their red color and the hindwings are not yet folded under the wing covers.

This ladybug has just emerged from its pupa. It's outer shell is still soft and the color of its wing covers is still developing.