Adult ladybugs can actually breathe air, however, they don’t obtain it through their mouths and they don’t have any lungs. Also, ladybugs cannot transport the oxygen into a circulatory system like we do, as they don’t have any. 

 

Ladybugs, like all insects, have a system of tubes, called tracheae, instead of lungs. These tracheae penetrate right through the insect's body. Air enters the tracheae by pores or 18 tiny openings in their body which are called spiracles (last image), which help regulate the passage of air into their bodies.

 

According to LifeScience (2007), spiracles are the dots in the middle and hind part of their bodies, being the sides of the abdomen and thorax. Each segment of the abdomen has a pair of spiracles. The air passes into the tracheae which branch into smaller and smaller tubes, in a similar way to the bronchioles in our lungs. The tracheae finally come to an end in the tissues which are respiring. Here in the tissues the oxygen is taken from the air in the tracheae. At the same time carbon dioxide enters the tracheae so that it can be expelled from the body.

The process of breathing in insects is slow. 

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Tracheae are supported by strengthening rings, just like the tracheae in our breathing system. The strengthening rings are made of chitin, which is the same material as we find on the outside of the insect.

 

Just like all insects, ladybugs have a process of exchanging gases, which allows oxygen to envelope around their organs (located in their abdomen and thorax, where their reproductive and digestive organs are too) and bathe them in oxygen. 

Once entered, the air gets filtered by the trachea, which helps filter it and prevent fluids from entering and leaving, and finding its way to body cavities. 

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When the pores open, oxygen-rich air can diffuse into tracheal tubes hooked up to the holes. The oxygen then gets shuttled through thousands of interconnected and branching tubes and dumped into cells. The waste product, carbon dioxide, then travels through the tubes and out the holes.