Coccinella septempunctata
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
Coccinella septempunctata, commonly known as the seven-spot ladybird (in North America, seven-spotted ladybug, seven-spotted lady beetle), often abbreviated C-7, is a carnivorous beetle native to Europe, most of Asia, and North Africa. It inhabits many regions with a temperate climate. The beetle has been introduced to several other areas, including North America as a biological pest control agent to combat aphid infestations. It is one of approximately 5,000 species of ladybird worldwide. Tatia Bauer states that C. septempunctata's ability to adapt to many different habitats makes it "one of the most successful aphidophagous insects".
C. septempunctata was first described and named in 1758 by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus. Coccinella, the name of the genus, comes from the Latin coccineus for the colour "scarlet". The common name is reflected in the Latin name for the species, septem meaning "seven" and punctata meaning "spotted".
C. septempunctata's elytra is red in colour, with three black spots on each wing. A further spot appears where the two wings join, giving a total of seven black spots. Their principal diet is aphids, on which they also depend for development and reproduction. When aphids are scarce, seven-spot ladybirds will survive on alternative food sources such as pollen, nectar, thrips and whitefly, but they cannot reproduce during that time. Predators of C. septempunctata include birds, small mammals, spiders, and other Coccinellidae. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mashhad | 🇮🇷 Iran | |
| 2 | Jammu | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Ankara | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 8 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Dushanbe | 🇹🇯 Tajikistan | |
| 10 | Nagoya | 🇯🇵 Japan |
No species of the same family or order lives in Dehradun, so these are its closest relatives here: other insects.
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle sighting in Dehradun on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 9th most-seen of the 73 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and April
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle in Dehradun on a given day, against under 5% in December to February, the lowest months. Those are among Dehradun's driest months, with about 35 mm of rain a month against 370 mm in July.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
44th of 123
Of the 123 cities where we can rate Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle sightings, Dehradun ranks 44th at about 30%. The best odds are in Mashhad (Iran, about 80%), Jammu (India, about 50%) and Birmingham (United Kingdom, about 50%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle is recorded against all the insects logged in Dehradun (17 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
