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Project Noah Nature School
Coccinella septempunctata
bright red with 3 black spots on each side and one that goes across the 2 sides; about 8 mm oval and domed; black head with white spots; apid eaters
found on sugar snap pea plants
the bright black on red colors of some adult ladybirds are aposematic, which is to say that the colors warn would-be predators that the beetles are distasteful or toxic.
Spotted on Apr 5, 2017
Submitted on Apr 14, 2017
2 Comments
Extinction of a species is usually linked to habitat loss or the invasion of foreign competitors or predators, but on the case of our native lost 9 spotted ladybug it has likely succumbed to a combination of those factors.
The ladybug we see the most is the multicolored Asian ladybug. It varies in number of spots and ranges in color from yellow-orange to deep crimson. It was introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help fight foreign pests on crops. They have a habit of showing up in groups on and in my house which is a nuisance. Some believe the 9 spotted and other natives are rarer because the introduced species like the Asian ladybug have excluded them from their favored habitat. Another idea is that the number of parasitic wasps that prey upon ladybugs increased with the introduction of alien ladybugs. Changes in cropping patterns and loss of agricultural land also may have played a prominent role.
Do you know why ladybugs are dissapering?