Welcome to the UK Ladybird Survey website
7-spot ladybird (photo: William Purvis)
The Ladybird Survey aims to facilitate the recording of all the UK's ladybirds.
Ladybirds belong to the scientific family Coccinellidae. In Britain, some 46 species
belong to this family, although only 26 of these are recognisably ladybirds.
On this website you will find lots of information to help you find and identify
species, and online forms so that you can record your observations.
This summer we are inviting people to look for the ladybird parasite Dinocampus
coccinellae and join the Ladybird Challenge.
The invasion of the harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) threatens our
native ladybirds and other species. We have been using the records that you send to
the UK Ladybird Survey to explore the ways in which native ladybirds are responding
to the harlequin ladybird. If you want to know more about this species in particular
see our summary,
A decade of recording harlequin ladybirds in the UK.
Use the links in the menus at the sides of this page to find out more about ladybirds,
and what you can do to help.
New Ladybirds Handbook Published
This revised and updated edition of Ladybirds (Naturalists' Handbooks 10) provides a succinct
but comprehensive and accessible overview of the biology of ladybirds and their parasites, focusing on
ecology in an evolutionary context.
Authored by the Ladybird Survey organisers, it is hoped to be of value, not only
for students, from school to university and beyond, but also for anyone with an
interest in natural history, whether professional or recreational.
Available from
the publishers,
Pelagic Publishing, and good bookshops.