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Once
upon a time, I discovered this attached to a leaf of my tangelo
tree. It turned out to be the pupa of the multicolored
Asian lady beetle (a.k.a.
ladybird beetle, lady
beetle). I kept it in a small container until it emerged in order
to be able to identify the adult form.
This is
the adult multicolored
Asian lady beetle . They were introduced into
California to help control various insect pests. The
"multicolored" refers to the great variation of colors and patterns on
the wing covers (elytra). The key is the pattern of black spots
on the white thorax (the "M").