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Coccinella magnifica - Larva, lateral
This single photo shows just about all details needed to recognize that this is the larva of a Scarce seven-spot, not the ubiquitous normal Seven-spot ladybird beetle.
This larva, that I take to be Coc.mag. (I didn't see it through to adulthood unfortunately) does not 100% conform to what most keys say(!): The brush in the lower, outside, hind corner of the metathorax is mostly keyed out as being "black" for Coc.sep. and yellow/orange for Coc.mag. Here the foot is orange but the brush itself is still blackish. Other features of the larva, the pale total aspect and the very widely "split" sclerites on the thorax make me confident that this should be Coc.mag. and there are other images around of Coc.mag. with a slightly blackisch hind lateral brush on the metathorax. In general, for most species there will always be some individual larvae that are aberrant in one of the "main" keying features :-/
Some more viewing angles and details of the same larva:
''Coccinella magnifica'', also known as the scarce seven-spot ladybird, is a species of beetle in the family Coccinellidae. Both the adults and larvae are predators. They are known for their diet of aphids, but will eat many other pests such as soft-scale insects, spider mites, mealybugs, and the eggs of many others.
