85/365 A day of firsts

26 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, ladybird, nature, spring

Tags

#365DaysWild, 7-spot ladybirds, bee-flies, Comma butterfly, Common Green Shieldbug, Dark-edged bee-fly, Peacock butterfly, Penarth Rail Trail, Sawfly, south Wales coastal path, Speckled wood

190326 (1) rail trail

I walked further than I intended today but I just couldn’t resist the sunshine, the calls of the birds, the bees and hoverflies buzzing all around, the white blossom and the vibrant green leaf growth … it was magical! Yesterday, I saw my first Peacock butterflies of the year and today I saw four more, plus my first two Speckled woods and my first Comma, my first Common green shieldbug and my first Dark-edged bee-flies, lots of them, and my first 7-spot ladybirds. It gladdens my heart to see so much new life emerging.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

190326 (12) coastal path

What do ladybirds eat?

10 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, ladybird, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

7-spot ladybirds, aphids, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, harlequin ladybird, ladybirds, Wild parsnip

I googled ‘What do ladybirds eat?’ today because I was trying to work out why there are so many ladybirds – about a 50 / 50 split between 7-spots and Harlequins – on the Wild parsnip plants at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. It turns out ladybirds are particularly keen on aphids and, as you can see in some of my photos, there are rather a lot of aphids on these plants. Good news for the ladybirds!