Animals That Start With L: 25 Animals From Ladybug to Lynx

Ladybug

Ladybugs, called ladybirds in Britain, are small beetles, and more than 6,000 species are known worldwide. Many, such as the seven-spot ladybug, eat aphids, and their bright colors warn birds that they taste bad. When disturbed they ooze a bitter yellow fluid from their leg joints. Their spots do not show their age; see do ladybug spots tell age?

Lammergeier

The lammergeier, or bearded vulture, lives in high mountains of southern Europe, Africa and Asia and is the only known vertebrate whose diet is 70–90% bone. It drops large bones from a height onto rocks to break them into swallowable pieces, and its stomach acid is extremely strong. Its rusty-orange color comes from bathing in iron-rich mud. It is Near Threatened.

Lamprey

Lampreys are eel-like, jawless fish with a round sucker mouth lined with rows of horny teeth. Many species attach to other fish and feed on their blood and body fluids. Their group is very old, with fossils about 360 million years old. The sea lamprey spread into the upper Great Lakes through shipping canals in the 20th century, where it badly hurt lake trout populations.

Leafcutter ant

Leafcutter ants of Central and South America, and of Texas and Louisiana in the US, cut pieces of leaves and carry them back to the nest, often far bigger than themselves. They do not eat the leaves; instead they use them to grow a fungus garden, and the fungus is their food. A large colony can contain millions of workers of different sizes.

Leatherback sea turtle

The leatherback is the largest living turtle, with adults typically 1.8–2.2 m (6–7 ft) long and weighing 250–700 kg (550–1,540 lb). Instead of a hard shell, its back is covered by leathery skin over small bony plates. It feeds mainly on jellyfish, has been recorded diving to 1,280 m (4,200 ft) and is listed as Vulnerable.

Leech

Leeches are segmented worms related to earthworms, with a sucker at each end of the body. Most live in fresh water, and not all suck blood: many swallow small invertebrates whole. The European medicinal leech produces a substance in its saliva, called hirudin, that stops blood from clotting while it feeds.

Lemming

Lemmings are small, round rodents of the Arctic tundra. Norway lemming numbers rise and crash in a cycle of three to four years. The popular idea that lemmings commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs is a myth, spread by staged scenes in the 1958 Disney film White Wilderness.

Lemur

Lemurs are primates found naturally only on Madagascar, with around 100 living species, from tiny mouse lemurs to the indri. The ring-tailed lemur lives in groups led by females and sunbathes with its arms spread wide on cool mornings. Habitat loss and hunting have made lemurs among the most threatened groups of mammals on Earth.

Leopard

The leopard is the most widespread big cat, found across much of Africa and parts of Asia, from rainforests to deserts. It is a strong climber that often hauls its kills into trees, out of reach of lions and hyenas. Black panthers are usually leopards (or jaguars) with dark fur, and the species is listed as Vulnerable.

Leopard seal

The leopard seal of the Antarctic is the second-largest seal in the Southern Ocean after the southern elephant seal, measuring 2.4–3.5 m (8–11.5 ft) and weighing 200–600 kg (440–1,320 lb). It hunts penguins and other seals, but it also strains huge numbers of krill through its interlocking cheek teeth.

Leopard slug

The leopard slug is a large gray, spotted slug native to Europe and introduced to North America and elsewhere, reaching 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long. Mating pairs twist around each other while hanging in midair from a thick rope of mucus attached to a branch or wall.

Lion

The lion is the only truly social wild cat, living in prides of related females, their cubs and a few males. Lions live in the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, with a small population in India’s Gir Forest. A lion’s roar can be heard from up to 8 km (5 mi) away. The species is listed as Vulnerable.

Lionfish

The red lionfish is a striking fish with long, venomous fin spines, native to the Indo-Pacific. Since the 1980s it has spread through the western Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, where it eats huge numbers of small reef fish; read why lionfish are invasive. A sting is very painful, so divers keep their distance.

Little brown bat

The little brown bat is a small insect-eating bat of North America that can live for more than 30 years in the wild, a remarkable age for such a small mammal. White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease of hibernating bats, has killed more than a million little brown bats since it appeared in 2006, and in 2021 the IUCN listed the species as Endangered.

Llama

The llama is a domesticated relative of the camel, bred in the Andes of South America from the wild guanaco several thousand years ago. It has long been used as a pack animal and for wool and meat. Llamas spit mostly at each other in squabbles over food or rank. Compare it with its smaller cousin in alpaca vs llama.

Lobster

The American lobster of the North Atlantic coast is the heaviest crustacean on record, with a record weight of about 20 kg (44 lb). Lobsters keep growing throughout their lives by molting, which is why big old lobsters can be so large, but they are not immortal. Rare blue lobsters owe their color to a genetic variation.

Locust

Locusts are grasshoppers that, when crowded, change color and behavior and form huge swarms. A desert locust swarm can hold up to 150 million insects per square kilometer and travel up to 150 km (93 mi) in a day. Even a swarm of 1 km² (0.4 sq mi) can eat as much food in a day as about 35,000 people.

Loggerhead sea turtle

The loggerhead is named for its large head, whose powerful jaws crush crabs, clams and conch shells. It lives in warm and temperate oceans worldwide and is the most common sea turtle nesting on the beaches of the southeastern United States, especially Florida. It is listed as Vulnerable.

Loon

The common loon, known as the great northern diver in Britain, nests on lakes across Canada and the northern United States. Its legs are set far back on its body, which makes it a superb diver, down to about 60 m (200 ft), but clumsy on land; read why can’t loons walk? Its haunting call is a classic sound of northern lakes, and it appears on Canada’s one-dollar “loonie” coin.

Loris

Lorises are slow-moving, big-eyed primates of the forests of South and Southeast Asia. Slow lorises are the only venomous primates: they combine an oily secretion from a gland on the upper arm with their saliva to give a toxic bite, used mostly in fights with each other. All slow loris species are threatened.

Lovebird

Lovebirds are nine species of small, colorful parrots from Africa and Madagascar, named for their strong pair bonds and the long periods paired birds spend sitting side by side. Females of some species carry strips of nesting material tucked into the feathers of their lower back.

Luna moth

The luna moth of eastern North America is a pale green moth with a wingspan of about 8–11.5 cm (3–4.5 in) and long, trailing hindwing tails. The tails are thought to confuse the echolocation of hunting bats. Adults have no working mouthparts and live only about a week, just long enough to mate and lay eggs.

Lungfish

Lungfish are freshwater fish that breathe air with lungs; six species survive in Africa, South America and Australia. African lungfish can survive dry seasons buried in the mud inside a cocoon of mucus. Lungfish have the largest genomes of any vertebrates, and their group goes back more than 410 million years.

Lynx

Lynxes are medium-sized wild cats with tufted ears, a short tail and large, furry paws that act like snowshoes. There are four species: the Eurasian lynx, the Canada lynx, the Iberian lynx and the bobcat. The Eurasian lynx, the largest, is returning to parts of central and western Europe through reintroductions.

Lyrebird

The superb lyrebird of the forests of southeastern Australia is one of the world’s largest songbirds. During courtship the male spreads his long, lacy tail feathers over his head. About 70–80% of a male’s song is made up of copies of other species’ calls, and it appears on the Australian ten-cent coin.