A ladybird: how is it possible to love something so small so much? | Helen Sullivan

Ladybirds know how good they look, and they don't keep it to themselves

The ladybird gets the first part of its name from Our Lady, The Lady, Mary. Its spots - seven, if you are in Europe - symbolise Mary's seven sorrows, its red shell the cloak she wears sometimes, when she is feeling passionate or loving, or devoted to her son, or, when she's in a particularly generous mood, devoted to all of humanity.

Ladybirds come from the coccinellid family of beetles, the name for which comes from the Latin for scarlet. They were given this title by Pierre Andre Latreille, a priest who had grown up an orphan and was thrown into a dungeon during the French Revolution and released because he recognised a rare species of beetle.