ladybirds

bird or bug?

epends on where you’re from. Those who speak the Queen’s English will use the British ‘ladybird’; others know them by the North American variation, ‘ladybug’. Look, let’s not start a linguistic stoush. Both are perfectly fine. It’s just the biscuit/ cookie, aubergine/eggplant, fanny/ bottom transatlantic duel of the insect world. Technically, though, we’re not talking about a bird (well, duh, you knew that) or a bug at all. We’re talking about a lady beetle, of the family Coccinellidae, from the Latin word for ‘scarlet’, coccineus. (What makes ladybirds beetles rather than true bugs is their hard wing cases, known as ‘elytra’, and their mouthparts. Basically: bugs are suckers, beetles are biters.) As for the origins of the common name—the ‘lady’ in question is ‘Our Lady’. As in, the Virgin Mary. It’s kind of a long walk to get from Jesus’ mum to a flying beetle but we’ll get