Donna Neill, age 10, of Staten Island, New York, for her question:

Do the spots on a ladybug tell her age?

No they don't. About 350 different ladybugs live in North America    and their spots merely show us which one is which. All of them are neat little beetles that look somewhat like polished buttons. The ones we notice most are shiny red with black dots. One kind has just two black dots, another species has 12, another has 22. The different species are cousins. One ladybug species wears shiny bright orange with 15 smudgy black dots. A certain yellow ladybug is bedecked with neat black squares instead of dots. Several ladybugs wear basic brown with white dots or blotches. Most species are very welcome in the garden because they devour various insects that feed on plants. But a few of the brownish types are pests. One species feeds on squash plants. And a brown ladybug with large orange spots devours leaves of the potato plant. All ladybugs try to hibernate through the winter    but none of them change their spots as they grow older.