Life Cycle of a Ladybug

Each year, we witness amazing life cycles in our classroom.  In years past, butterflies have been our go-to bug, however, this year, I decided to give ladybugs a try.  Our ladybug unit usually falls in the summer, and the company that supplies the insect larvae won't ship the ladybugs when the weather is too hot.  I was finally on the ball this year and remembered to order before the heat kicked in here in sunny Arizona.  I still plan to do our annual butterfly project, but here's a look at our sweet ladybugs.

 In your ladybug kit, you will get this cute Ladybug Land along with a tube filled with larvae and enough food to last until they enter the pupal phase of their lives.  The little strips of paper were in the tube so the larvae have a place to crawl while being shipped.

 The top of the Ladybug Land is a magnifier, just in case you don't have any around. 

 Invitation to create bugs.  I got the stencils/rubbing plates from Insect Lore as well.  They also look pretty cool on the light table.

 Teeny ladybug larvae - not so cute, but now you know not to rid your garden of these lil fellas.

 See those yellow spots?  Ladybug pupa.

 An attempt at a close-up.

 All resting and waiting to hatch.

 Ta-da!  Ladybugs have arrived.

 They like to munch on raisins while waiting to be released.

 Here's the Ladybug Land with the top removed, time to release our new friends.

I put them in my tomato plant, hoping they'd stay and I actually did find one about three days later, but I'm not sure if they're still around or not.  My son likes to think they are and I do too!  Now, off to order our caterpillars!