Ladybug Coloring Pages

A ladybug is usually the first insect a child lets walk across their hand, and the red shell with black spots is one of the first things they learn to draw. These ladybug coloring pages follow the little beetle through a whole year in the garden, and show parts of its life that most people never see.

The life cycle has pages of its own. A ladybug lays a cluster of eggs on a leaf, a spiky larva crawls along a rose stem toward the aphids it will eat, and an adult opens its spotted shell to spread the folded wings underneath. In winter, a crowd of ladybugs packs into a crack in the bark to wait for spring, another shelters in a curled autumn leaf, and one sits on a knitted mitten left on a snowy fence.

The rest is the garden in season: a seven-spot ladybug on a curled blade of grass, one climbing a daisy stem, one tucked inside a tulip, one on a ripe strawberry, one flying between sunflowers, one on a dandelion clock as the seeds blow away, one sipping a dew drop on a clover leaf, and a line of them walking a twig over a puddle. Ladybugs shelter under a leaf in the rain, meet a snail on a stone path, cross a spider web between fence posts and sit in a dewy cobweb, ride on the back of a bigger beetle, explore a pine cone and a fallen feather, walk through the lavender with the bees, share a half-eaten leaf with a caterpillar, and move into a wooden bug house. Some are playful: two ladybugs on a twig seesaw, one on a tiny grass swing, one on a straw hat, a picnic cloth full of them, a herb garden with a watering can, one landing on a fingertip, and a chibi ladybug holding a spotted umbrella. A decorated ladybug, a paisley ladybug, a ladybug mandala and a border of ladybugs and clover finish the set.

Spots are not birthdays

A common story says you can tell a ladybug's age by counting its spots. It is not true: the number of spots depends on the kind of ladybug, and it stays the same all its adult life. The most familiar one, the seven-spot ladybug, always has seven, three on each side and one shared across the middle. Others have two spots, ten, twenty-two, or none at all, and some are yellow, orange or black instead of red.

The bright color is a warning. When a ladybug is picked up roughly, it releases a drop of yellow liquid from its knees that smells and tastes bad, and birds learn quickly to leave red-and-black beetles alone.

A gardener's best friend

Ladybugs eat aphids, the tiny green insects that suck the sap out of roses and vegetables, and they eat an enormous number of them: thousands over a single lifetime. The larva, which looks nothing like its parents, is even hungrier. It is long and gray with orange spots, often described as a tiny alligator, and gardeners who do not know it sometimes mistake it for a pest. The page with the larva on the rose shows it heading straight for a row of aphids, which is exactly the job it is there to do.

That is why people build bug houses like the one on these pages, bundles of hollow canes and pine cones in a wooden frame, to give ladybugs somewhere safe to spend the winter close to the garden.

Getting the red just right

• The shell: bright red or orange-red. Color it evenly, then press a little harder along the outer edge of each wing case to make it look round.
• The shine: leave a small curved streak of white paper near the top of the shell. It turns a flat red oval into a glossy beetle.
• The spots, head and legs: black. The seven-spot ladybug has two small white patches on either side of its head.
• The larva: dark gray with orange marks.
• The eggs: pale yellow, in a neat cluster.

On the decorated and paisley pages, forget realism: fill each spot with a different color and keep the shell red around them.

Simple ladybugs and busy gardens

The quickest pages keep one ladybug large with little around it, like the one beside the keyhole and the one inside the tulip. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Ladybug by a keyhole
• Ladybug on a daisy stem
• Decorated ladybug

The detailed ones are gardens full of leaves, flowers and wicker. Lots of detail begins with:

• Ladybugs in the herb garden
• Ladybug on a fingertip
• Ladybug house

Painted stone ladybugs

Once a child has colored a few ladybugs, the same pattern works on a smooth, rounded pebble. Paint the stone red, add a black head across one end, a line down the middle and black spots on each side, then two tiny white dots for eyes. A varnish coat keeps it outside. Set a row of them in a flower bed, or use the colored border page as a garden sign, with the child's name in the oval, beside them.

Printing a garden of ladybugs

Every page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size; on US Letter choose "fit to page", which makes the drawing about six percent smaller and keeps every antenna on the sheet. The printing guide points to the setting. Add to pack puts several ladybugs into one file. More insects are in the bug coloring pages and the butterfly coloring pages, and the garden continues in the flower coloring pages and the spring coloring pages.