Spot A Ladybug

Did you ever wonder how ladybugs got their spots?

I am working with a extremely interesting type of ladybug called the Harlequin ladybug, or Harmonia axyridis. This ladybug can vary in the way they look with respect to both color (they can be red, orange, yellow, and black) and spot number (they can have anywhere from zero spots to twenty-two spots).

This projects uses citizens to understand what these ladybugs look like across continents! Knowing how the Harlequin ladybug's look varies will help determine, genetically, how so much variation exists.