Definition of "ladybird"
ladybird
noun
plural ladybirds
Any of the Coccinellidae family of beetles, typically having a round shape and red or yellow spotted elytra.
Quotations
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, / Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone: / All but one whose name is Ann, / And she crept under the pudding-pan.
1927, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Edward Everett Hale, and William Byron Forbush (editors), Childhood′s Favorites and Fairy Stories: The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1, Gutenberg eBook #19993
Perhaps it was a sense of lack of effectiveness of native ladybirds in rapid and complete control of aphid infestations that led to attempts to import additional aphid-feeding ladybird species into North America.
2008, John L. Capinera, Encyclopedia of Entomology, Springer-Verlag New York, 2nd Edition, page 2130