State Insects
The Ladybug and The Lightning Bug

The ladybeetle, more commonly called ladybug or ladybird beetle, is the popular name given the Coccinella 7. This beetle was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and called “Beetle of Our Lady.” They are around four-tenths of an inch long, brightly colored, round, with the popular ladybug having four black spots on each wing.

Ladybugs are sold to farmers to control insect pests because they are important aphid predators. The life cycle is about four weeks as the ladybug larvae passes through four growth stages feeding on insects and insect eggs.

In folk medicine ladybug beetles were used to cure various diseases including colic and the measles.

The firefly, or lightning bug beetle, is the popular name of the luminescent insects of the Lampyridae family. In Tennessee, Photinus pyralls is the most familiar species. Their extraordinary light is generated in special organs and it is most often white, yellow, orange, greenish blue or reddish.

Rather small, they are blackish, brown, yellow or reddish in color. In certain species the females remain in the larvae state and are called glowworms.

Most fireflies produce short rhythmic flashes which provide a signaling system to bring the sexes together and also a protective mechanism to remind predators.

Information from this page taken from the Tennessee Blue Book.