
Coccinellidae (ladybird beetles) in the order Coleoptera (beetles)
Not all Missouri lady beetles are red with black spots. The four-spotted lady beetle reverses the pattern. This is one of our native species.
Interestingly, a subspecies that occurs southeast of Missouri has yellow spots instead of red.
Learn more about this and other lady beetles (ladybugs) on their group page.
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.