Backyard bug hunt yields rare Spotless 'Nine-spotted' Ladybug

This week’s featured insect, pictured at right, appears to be what’s called a Spotless “Nine-spotted” Ladybug (Coccinella novemnotata franciscana).

My son found this unusual species of ladybug during a recent “bug hunt” in our yard. As you can see, the bug was found clinging to the net of our backyard trampoline in southwest Alabama.

According to my “National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders,” ladybugs of this type are about a quarter of an inch long and almost hemispherical. Their heads and thorax are black with yellow or white markings and their legs and underside are black. Their elytra, that is, the hard shell that covers their wings, are yellowish red with or without one black spot at the scutellum.

“Despite its nearly spotless elytra, structural details reveal that this beetle is a subspecies of the widespread Nine-Spotted Ladybug Beetle,” the field guide said.

These types of ladybugs are typically found in the edges of forests, and they eat aphids and other small, soft insects.

The most unusual thing about the description in my field guide regarding this ladybug is the fact that it said that it is rare to find this type of ladybug outside of California.

This makes me wonder if this lady bug is actually a Spotless “Nine-spotted” Ladybug or just a typical ladybug with unusual genetics. I also wonder if maybe we’d found this ladybug at a point in its life cycle in which its characteristic spots had yet to develop.

An online search led me to some information about a similar species of insect called the Blood-Red Lady Beetle. However, photos of this species did not seem to match the insect above, especially when compared with the closely matching photo in our field guide.

Again, this week’s insect provides us with another example of something that all too common for an amateur entomologist like myself, that is, there is often some degree of uncertainty about exactly what I might be looking at.

In the end, until someone can show me otherwise, I’m sticking with the Spotless “Nine-spotted” Ladybug theory. Have any of you out there ever seen an insect like the one pictured above? Do you know what it’s called? Have you ever heard anyone say what it’s called? If so, let us know in the comments section below.