Bug FAQThirteen-spotted Lady Beetle
Hippodamia tredecimpunctata · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Coccinellidae
Also called: 13-spotted Lady Beetle, 13-spot Ladybird, 13-spotted Ladybird, 13-spotted Ladybug
The thirteen-spotted lady beetle is usually red to orange and has thirteen dark spots. It lives in wet habitats such as marshes, river deltas and lakesides, often on plants like Carex, Sparganium, Phragmites and Salix. It is found across much of the northern hemisphere, from Europe and Asia to North America.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adults are red to orange with thirteen black or dark spots.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Prefers wet meadows, marshes, flood plains, river deltas and similar moist areas. Commonly found on Carex, Sparganium, Phragmites and Salix plants.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Feeds on aphids such as Aphis farinosa on grasses and sedges, and on aphids associated with grasses, umbellifers and other plants. Also consumes powdery mildew (Erysiphales) on reeds before aphids appear.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Females lay very small eggs in clusters of 10 to 50 on leaf undersides. Larvae are slightly flattened and bear tiny spines.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Distributed throughout Europe, North Africa, much of Russia, Central and East Asia, Japan, and North America.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
Its numbers have dropped in some regions after the non-native Coccinella septempunctata arrived, but it still coexists with that species in parts of Canada.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 38 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Vermont, Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Minnesota, California, Michigan, Illinois.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
How can I tell a thirteen-spotted lady beetle from other lady beetles?
Look for a red or orange beetle with exactly thirteen dark spots on its wing covers.
Source: Wikipedia
Where am I likely to find this beetle?
In wet habitats like marshes, flood plains, lakesides and on plants such as Carex, Sparganium, Phragmites and Salix.
Source: Wikipedia
What does the thirteen-spotted lady beetle eat?
It preys on aphids that live on grasses, sedges and other plants, and also feeds on powdery mildew on reeds.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Coccinellidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodamia_tredecimpunctata
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.