How do I not know this?

[Bardette]

Did you know that ladybirds start off as grubs and then go into a cocoon like a butterfly? Well I didn't.
Watching 'Minibeasts with Jess' on Cbeebies (with dcs I hasten to add) and they are collecting little black and red caterpillar thingies which are baby ladybirds.
I consider myself fairly well educated, was I off sick on ladybird day? Should I consider suing the school? What else don't I know?
Tell me I'm not alone in my ignorance...

[KirjavaTheCat]

I did know that, but only because I decided one day to google ladybirds a few years back.

[mismylinford]

i didn't know that about ladybirds!! just thought it was like butterflies and moths...
i knew sea horses were real
i also knew about plankton .. a level biology.
but i didn't know till very recently that king arther and the knights ofnthe round table was made up... there wasn't a king arther at all very disappointed.

[DoJo]

The bull vs bullock thing is made more confusing because in the US a bullock is just a young bull even if it hasn't been castrated, whereas here it is a castrated bull of any age. So your friend wasn't exactly wide of the mark Badgers!

[MadonnaKebab]

LeafySeaDragon
Sea dragons make sea horses look positively average
[crosses fingers & hopes link works]

[GerundTheBehemoth]

All beetles (incl ladybirds) have complete metamorphosis, with egg-larva-pupa-adult stages. So do bees, wasps, ants, true flies (eg bluebottles, craneflies, hoverflies), fleas, butterflies and moths, and a few other groups.

But dragonflies, grasshoppers, true bugs (eg shieldbugs, aphids, water boatmen, cicadas), praying mantises and some others go from a nymph to an adult with no pupa stage. The fully grown nymph basically splits open and the adult climbs out, leaving a rather beautiful empty husk.

[GerundTheBehemoth]

Ladybirds don't make cocoons though. A cocoon's a kind of net or ball of silk that goes around the pupa.

[Bardette]

What do ladybirds make?

[GerundTheBehemoth]

A pupa, but it's not so much 'make' as 'turn into'. A silkmoth caterpillar also turns into a pupa, but first the caterpillar spins a silk cocoon around itself. Then it turns into a pupa inside the cocoon. The cocoon is an extra layer of protection from predators, and a way to anchor the pupa in a particular place.

Many insects that have a pupa stage don't need a cocoon, because the pupa is buried in soil, or in the case of ladybirds it (like the adult ladybird) has aposematic coloration, warning predators that it is poisonous or tastes horrible. So you'll find ladybird pupae in full view on the uppersides of leaves.

Here's a harlequin ladybird larva and pupa from my local nature reserve.

[BadgersInTheSlurryLagoon]

Bullocks - the question initially arose while in a field of (castrated, British) bullocks - she was insistent that they were just baby bulls and refused to believe that bulls get castrated. We were mid-teens at the time and it rather passed into legend due to her later veterinary career. I think her dad even mentioned it in his speech at her wedding.

[jeanmiguelfangio]

I didn't know that- learn something new every day- thank god for mumsnet

[softlysoftly]

Ah well tbf round here they are mainly called "steak" Badgers

[wonderingsoul]

I didn't know about the lady birds...

But surely some crabs lay eggs..

I'm sure I saw a programme about them emerging from sand and making a dash for the sea?.....

Or it could have been turtles...

I dunno...

[riskit4abiskit]

There sort of was a king Arthur. He fought against the Anglo saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon but he was a general type of soldier under vortigern (which means great leader).

[grocklebox]

You don't know where chat is, so its not a huge surprise.....

[IneedAwittierNickname]

I didn't know that either! And we went minibeast hunting today and the sexy young man doing it didn't mention it :(

[GerundTheBehemoth]

wondering - that's turtles. As for crabs, they all do lay eggs and the females carry the eggs around stuck on their undercarriage til they hatch. Then the hatchlings/larvae (which look nothing like crabs - they have long segmented tails and crazy spines and whatnot) swim off and follow a free-swimming life for a while, until they are bigger and more crablike.

[BadgersInTheSlurryLagoon]

Softly -