Twenty two

09 Wednesday Nov 2022

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, ladybird

Tags

British ladybirds, Harlequin ladybirds, ladybirds

I know the weather’s been mild – we haven’t even had a frost here yet – but I still didn’t expect to see a bunch of ladybirds on nettles as I walked through a local park on Monday afternoon. Initially I thought there were just one or two but the little red dots just kept on appearing so I retraced my steps to where I’d seen the first one and counted. Twenty two! Sadly, they were all the invasive Harlequins but hopefully that means the native breeds are all tucked up somewhere safe for the winter.

221109 ladybirds

185/366 Grounded

03 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, ladybird, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

7-spot ladybird, British ladybirds, ladybirds, Seven-spot ladybird

This is a bit of a sad story. During yesterday’s walk, I spotted this Seven-spot ladybird sitting on a leaf alongside the path.

200703 7spot ladybird (1)

It was acting a bit strangely: opening its elytra (wing cases), raising its abdomen, shutting its elytra, over and over again. It took me a minute to realise that it only seemed to have one full-size wing; the other appeared stunted or perhaps it had been damaged and was no longer able to be extended.

200703 7spot ladybird (2)

I presume the ladybird was trying to remedy the problem through its movements but they didn’t seem to have any effect, and I fear this ladybird may be forever grounded.

200703 7spot ladybird (3)

286/365 Bright spots

13 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British ladybirds, ladybird, ladybirds

191013 ladybirds (1)

It was such a pleasure to see these ladybirds, bright spots of vibrant colour on a particularly dull wet day.

The aphid-eaters

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects, nature, plants

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

aphids, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, ladybirds, Wild parsnip, Willow warbler, Willow warbler migration

180815 willow warbler (5)

Do you remember last Friday I blogged about the abundance of ladybirds at Cosmeston? They were feasting on the huge numbers of aphids on the Wild parsnip plants. Well, it turns out the ladybirds have had some competition for those aphids this week, as the migrating Willow warblers move through. I don’t think we need to worry though – there are more than enough aphids to go around!

180815 willow warbler (1) 180815 willow warbler (2) 180815 willow warbler (3) 180815 willow warbler (4)

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!

Random creatures of Barry

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Barry, Crab spider, Dock bug, Garden snails, Glamorgan Botany Group, Grene shieldbug, hoverflies, insects, ladybirds, Orange-tip butterfly, slow-worm

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I spent a wonderful day on Saturday exploring and examining some of the town of Barry’s wilder green spaces with members of the Glamorgan Botany Group. But, of course, you can’t spend a whole day looking at plants without also seeing an awful lot of the critters that live on those plants and I admit to being a trifle distracted at times … by a sunshine-yellow Crab spider, by fluttering butterflies and buzzing hoverflies, by plentiful dock and shield bugs, by the sad sight of a dead Slow-worm. Some of the lovely old stone houses and churches we passed were pretty cool too!