Ants cultivate aphids like we do cows, farming them for their secretions. Ladybugs eat aphids. Ants must see ladybugs as something like a bear that comes from the wild and devastates their livestock. To the ants, god’s little cow might be a red devil 🐞

Well, that explains the buggalo -

It's mostly called "gărgăriță" in Romanian, but also - and I just found out thanks to this post - "vaca Domnului", which translates to... you've guessed it: God's cow

In French, coccinelle means literally nothing. But it is also called "bête à bon dieu" which can be translated to "the good god's beast" (good god as in god is a good guy).

"God's little cow"

Cows, also made by God:

In Dutch it’s lieveheersbeestje, meaning ‘dear Lord’s little beast’

The lady in ladybug is a reference to Mary. Before that, the middle English was, you guessed it, a reference to a cow, Godyscow. Also, in Polish, it's God's cow. Welsh gets short red cow. There's also a archaic French term that's God's cow.

The other animal that seems to show up is hen.

In my part of Argentina they're saint Anthony's little cow (vaquita de san Antonio)

Am Irish. Can confirm.

In Hebrew: Old (as in rabbi) Moses' Cow

Finnish it is, leppäkerttu, leppä (“blood”) (archaic) +‎ Kerttu, after the red-orange color.

onions dude

But why?

In Portuguese it's... Joaninha. No, it's not even close to God's Little Cow. It's a form of Joana (Yochanah, hebrew for God's Grace).

Hang on a minute. That would indicate that ladybugs, or the divine mini-bovine, was likely named after the domestication of cows, since cows being an easy go to for naming something without name. Which has some interesting implications for the development of European languages. The indo-European group that moved west likely would have with them domesticated cows when they named the ladybug. Which means either it wasn't worth naming during the thousands of years of human language when humans were hunter gatherers, or the ladybugs were not native to the area the cow-domesticators came from. Or am I missing something?

crazy. just call them key maidens like civilised people.

So, cows eat aphids alive & ass-first, too?

And in Swedish, Nyckelpiga, which word for word translates to key-maid. The name comes from something like beeing connected to the Virgin Mary, keeper of the keys to heaven.

Why is no one talking about the guinea pig? How is it related?