The world is full of beetles – literally crawling with them.

There is a theory that if you took one of every species of animal on the Earth, then 25 per cent of them would be beetles.

Of course, that’s not accounting for the thousands of species that might be hidden away in rainforests and other habitats.

There is an alternative theory that there may be more species of wasp, but let’s leave that to one side for the moment.

Not surprisingly, given such diversity, beetles occupy a wide range of habitats and come in assorted shapes and sizes.

Some are brightly coloured, some dull. Some are predatory, others herbivorous – some even eat animal dung (and do a good job of recycling in the process).

Some beetles are thoroughly unpleasant to look at, in fact downright scary – male stag beetles for example.

Insects generally are not always people’s favourite animals.

However, there’s one group of beetles that you’d be hard pushed to find anyone to say a bad word about.

I’m talking here about the ladybirds, or Coccinellidae, if you want to get all scientific.

There are over 40 native species of ladybird in the UK, many of them named after the number of spots on their wing-cases.

Almost all are predatory, both adults and larvae feeding on small insects, especially aphids.

Not surprisingly, this makes them popular with gardeners.

Like many insects, ladybirds have a complicated life cycle.

Adults overwinter in nooks and crannies, emerging in spring to search for a mate.

Eggs are laid and hatch a few days later, the emerging larvae being a grey-blue colour with pale yellow spots.

These undergo several moults over the summer, before turning into adults, which are often unpigmented at first.

They continue to feed for a few weeks, before finding themselves a quiet spot in which to hibernate.

The commonest native species is the 7-spot ladybird.

This is the familiar red and black beastie that we all know so well.

It has three spots on either side and one fused spot along the central divide between wing cases.

The red and black colouration is thought to be a warning to potential predators.

Not only do ladybirds have a bitter taste (apparently), but they can also give off an acrid yellow fluid as a protection measure.

A much less commonly seen species is the striped ladybird, which has the quite wonderful scientific name of Myzia oblongoguttata – the latter part of the name meaning something along the lines of “long-spotted” (or striped, if you prefer).

It’s a specialist of pine woodlands, although it can also be found around spruce, larch and birch trees.

The adults overwinter beneath bark or amongst leaf litter.

If ladybirds are generally seen as benign insects, there is one black sheep of the family; or rather, a black, white, red and orange sheep.

This is the harlequin ladybird, a non-native species which comes in a bewildering variety of colours and patterns and can be easily confused with others.

It was introduced to the west from Asia as a biological form of pest control, but has since run riot and developed a taste for the eggs and larvae of native ladybird species.

There’s a moral to this tale – biocontrol of pests is a lovely idea in principle and can lead to a reduced need for pesticides. However, as the harlequin ladybird shows, it can go horribly wrong.