Six-spotted Zigzag Ladybird

Description:

Coleoptera; Coccinellidae; Cheilomenes sexmaculata Fabricius, 1781 and Hemiptera; Sternorrhyncha; Aphididae; Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763. I am pretty sure that when ladybirds laid their eggs on our String Beans, about one month ago, there were no aphids on the the young plants. So, it would seem that this species interaction did not happen by accident. If the ladybirds waited until they saw the aphids, on the plants, they would probably be too late to gain the full benefit of this massive food supply for their larvae (and, obviously the new generation of adults, from those larvae). I suspect that there are several factors at work here. In https://www.thoughtco.com/the-life-cycle....... it is explained that ladybirds usually hibernate in aggregations, between seasons, and wake up to start one (or sometimes two) life cycles, before hibernating again. So, the timing must be critical and those which get it wrong will probably not survive. Thus, the gene pool is refined, in favour of those which got their timing right. Of course, none of this is based on scientific knowledge, but it just makes sense to me.

Habitat:

These Six-spotted Zigzag Ladybirds and the Black Bean Aphids, which they were eating, were spotted in our backyard vegetable plot, on String Beans (Vigna unguiculata) locally known as Sitaw. Plant information from - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Sitaw.html