Just like other insects, ladybugs have exoskeletons which are made of a protein called chitin, just like the protein which helps form our hair and fingernails. Their bodies have three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Each of the three body parts has a different function.

 

-The head contains the ladybug’s mouthparts, compound eyes, and antennae. 

The pronotum is the area behind the ladybug’s flat head, which makes it look round. The pronotum protects the ladybug’s head and helps hide it.

The antenna helps in taste, smell and feel its way around. 

Ladybugs have two eyes, but do not have great eyesight so they feel the tiny insects in which they consume. Ladybugs can see the difference between darkness and light, as if everything was a black and white photo, but they cannot see color at all.

 

-The thorax has three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. The first pair of wings is the hardened elytra which protects the flight wings underneath. When the ladybug takes flight, the elytra open, and the thin, veined wings unfold. 

The thorax and the abdomen, is the body section where the legs and wings are attached to, and the part that holds the ladybugs digestive system, the reproductive organs, and the stinky, poisonous gel.

The six short little legs of a ladybug help it to walk, but they do more than that. The feet of a ladybug helps it smell, and when a predator captures a ladybug, the bad tasting and poisonous gel (poisonous only to pets and prey) will ooze out of the legs, sometimes saving the ladybug’s life.

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-Ladybugs have a shell, which protects their wings and also protects them against predators. The elytra is the part of the ladybug that displays the bright colors and dots which shows against predators to ward them off. The Elytra is exactly the same on the side right, as it is on the left. They are mirror images and symmetrical to each other.

 

-The abdomen contains organs for digestion, respiration, and reproduction. Adult ladybugs breathe air, but the air enters the body through openings, called spiracles, located on the sides of the abdomen and thorax.

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