This is one of the most familiar British types of ladybird and its voracious appetite for aphids make it the gardeners' friend. Although they breed in the UK numbers are swelled by migrating swarms from the continent. Where the migration fails to make landfall the sea looks red from their wing cases and is sometimes called a red tide.

The striking colour provides no camouflage but warns predatory birds that it would be dangerous and distasteful to eat. Ladybirds contain alkaloid poisons that are more than enough to deter a hungry bird.