# Bag of Wonder: The Ladybug > From tiny yellow eggs to a spotty ladybug. Watch her open her wings and fly! A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/ladybug/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is An interactive 3D ladybug for young children: slide through a ladybug's life on a maple leaf, from a little group of yellow eggs to a hungry larva that looks like a tiny alligator, a still pupa, a pale new ladybug whose red and spots slowly appear, and the moment it lifts its wing cases and unfolds its thin flying wings. Pull the ladybug apart and tap any part to learn what it does. A free early-years learning resource from Bag of Wonder, made at Curiosity's Child. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. Look closely, poppets! A mother ladybug has laid a little group of yellow eggs on a leaf, close to some aphids. 2. A few days later, out come the babies! A baby ladybug is called a larva. It looks like a tiny alligator. 3. The larva is always hungry. It gobbles up tiny bugs called aphids, lots and lots of them, and it grows and grows. 4. When it is big enough, it holds on to the leaf with its tail and keeps very still. Now it is a pupa. Inside, it is changing. 5. About a week later, out comes a ladybug! It is soft and pale yellow, with no spots yet. 6. As it rests in the sun, its wing cases harden, and its red colour and black spots slowly appear. 7. Ready to fly! It lifts its hard red wing cases, and thin flying wings unfold from underneath. 8. Off it flies! Its bright red tells hungry birds: I taste yucky, leave me alone! 9. When winter comes, ladybugs snuggle together in a big group and sleep, until the spring sunshine wakes them up. ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Ladybug eggs**: Each egg is tiny, smaller than a grain of rice. The mother lays them standing up in a little group, close to aphids, so her babies have food as soon as they hatch. - **Empty eggshells**: The babies have hatched! The empty shells stay stuck to the leaf. The new larvae often nibble them as their very first meal. - **Ladybug larva**: A baby ladybug is called a larva. It looks like a tiny alligator, with six legs and a bumpy, spiky back. It grows so fast that it changes its skin three times. - **Aphids**: Aphids are tiny soft bugs that drink the sweet juice inside plants. Gardeners are happy to see ladybugs, because ladybugs eat so many aphids. - **Pupa**: The pupa holds on to the leaf by its tail and keeps still for about a week. Inside, the larva's body is changing into a ladybug. - **Empty pupa**: The new ladybug has climbed out. The empty pupa stays stuck to the leaf. - **A brand-new ladybug**: Just out of the pupa, its wing cases are soft and pale yellow. As they dry and harden, the red colour and the spots come through. - **Wing cases**: The hard red wing cases are really the ladybug's front wings. They are like a shell that keeps the soft flying wings safe. When it flies, it holds them up out of the way. - **Flying wings**: Thin, see-through wings, much longer than the wing cases! They fold up small underneath them. To fly, the ladybug unfolds them and beats them very, very fast. - **Spots**: Different kinds of ladybug have different spots: two, seven, lots, or none at all. The spots don't tell how old a ladybug is. Each kind has its own pattern. - **The shield**: Behind the head is a hard black shield with two white patches. They look like big eyes, but they aren't! The real head is the small part in front. - **Head**: The head is small and black. Strong little jaws munch aphids. A grown-up ladybug can eat about fifty aphids in one day! - **Antennae**: Two short feelers. The ladybug uses them to smell, and to feel its way along the leaf. - **Six legs**: All insects have six legs. A ladybug's feet have tiny sticky hairs, so it can walk upside down under a leaf. - **Soft back**: Under the wing cases is the soft back part of the body, called the abdomen. The wing cases keep it, and the folded flying wings, safe. - **Red means yucky**: Bright red and black tell birds: I taste yucky! If a ladybug is frightened, it can let out a tiny drop of smelly yellow juice from its knees. Birds soon learn to leave ladybugs alone. - **Maple leaf**: Ladybugs live where the aphids are. Aphids drink the sweet juice inside leaves like this one, so this is a good place to look for ladybugs. - **Winter sleep**: When it gets cold, ladybugs gather in a big group in a sheltered spot, under leaves, logs or bark, and sleep through the winter. In spring they wake up and fly off to find aphids. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - Ladybugs (ladybirds in the UK) are beetles. Their hard red wing cases are called elytra; the thin flying wings fold up underneath them. - To fly, a ladybug lifts its wing cases and unfolds its flying wings; only the thin wings beat. - The life cycle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The spiky larva looks nothing like the adult. - Mothers lay small clusters of yellow eggs, often near aphids, so the larvae have food when they hatch. - Larvae and adults both eat aphids, which is why gardeners are glad to see them. - The bright colours warn birds that ladybugs taste bad; if bothered, they can ooze a little yellow, bitter liquid from their knees. - Many ladybugs spend the winter asleep in groups in sheltered places. - Not every ladybug is red with black spots: some are yellow, orange or black, and the number of spots varies by kind. ## How to use it with children Watch the whole story with the sound on, then slide back to the larva and ask, "Would you guess this grows into a ladybug?" Pull the ladybug apart to find the wing cases and the thin flying wings folded underneath. Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: in late spring, look on plants with aphids (rose bushes are good) for ladybugs and their spiky larvae. Look, don't squash. Count the spots on any ladybug you find, then draw one and give it as many spots as you like. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - The ladybug: ["Ladybug - insect" by Brian Trepanier](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ladybug-insect-42aab203e4a449e189b9b9960b3689b8) (CC BY), given wing cases that open and legs that walk on our own computer - Its flying wings: from [a photo by Clinton & Charles Robertson](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_beetle_taking_flight.jpg) (CC BY-SA 2.0) - The leaf: ["Maple Leaf scan" by Seth Hamer](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/maple-leaf-scan-0d2d197c89fb4135915cee9c9b1d91a1) (CC BY) - The eggs, larva and pupa: painted for us with Grok, then made into 3D on our own computer - The aphids: made into 3D from [a photo by Alexis](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myzus_persicae_75370961.jpg) (CC BY 4.0) - Sky, grass, the stems, nettles, shrubs, dandelions and periwinkle: [Poly Haven](https://polyhaven.com) (CC0) - Real sounds of the garden from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), thank you!): [garden birds at 5 am](https://freesound.org/s/157848/) (matucha), [summer meadow with wind](https://freesound.org/s/639459/) (Garuda1982), [summer meadow](https://freesound.org/s/815552/) (richwise), and for the buzz of wings, [a bumblebee in lavender](https://freesound.org/s/397113/) (Kinoton) - Music-box tune made for this page - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice ## More on the Bugs shelf - [The Butterfly](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/chrysalis/index.md): A caterpillar turns into soup, then into a butterfly. Really! - [The Spider](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/spider/index.md): Watch a garden spider spin her web, thread by thread. Wobble, wobble! ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Ladybug", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/ladybug/