Crossword Genius

Crawler identifying former president’s wife (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ladybird

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'crawler' is the definition.
(ladybirds crawl along)

'former president's wife' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'wife' could be 'lady' (I have seen 'Wife of gentleman ' mean 'lady' so perhaps 'wife' could also mean 'lady') and 'lady' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'bird' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'identifying' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ladybird that I've seen before include "old children's book" , "Red insect with black spots" , "Black-spotted red beetle" , "Common insect" , "This insect likes greenfly" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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