Polished Lady Beetle / Mock Orange blossom

Well that is awesome news! Two pronged defenses for my veggies! My sunflowers and vine plants (pumpkins, cukes, squashes) seem to be the ones that have attracted the majority of lady beetles at the moment). While the Mantis are hanging out on the smaller leafed, hardy stalk plants. ;-) At least that was my observation yesterday. quite windy and rainy today, wont be out spotting or working in the gardens as much.

My observations of mantids have shown them to prefer flying or rapidly moving prey that they can make a sudden grab for, I'm no mantis expert though. But lady beetles prefer more stationary prey, like aphids, maggots, small caterpillars, etc. So I don't think they compete directly for prey!

I will keep my eyes peeled for another of the black with two red spots. It was a very interesting little lady beetle. I found it while weeding my garden, so I am hoping that is where it's living with many many many relatives. Although I am not sure how they fair against the Mantis I have living in there. lol (I don't mind them competing for food as long as they are eating the aphids and veggie munching bandits that tend to ruing my harvests)

Well, C. munda also does not have the separate pale spots on the pronotum that C. sanguinea does - they're connected curves or even circles. So this is still C. munda for reasons other than range. You're right though, lady beetles do get around by themselves or by introduction, accidental or otherwise! The black-with-two-red-spots pattern of the twice stabbed lady beetle is actually very common for a large number of species that often can't be ID'd from photos, but if you see another one, try to get some pictures and I'll see what I can do!

I have found that when it comes to Lady Beetles, range is not always a good distinctive property to use for identification, due to the many many varieties that have been imported, transplanted, and otherwise distributed around the globe by either accident or for commercial uses. I will have to pay more attention though. I did have a two spot, or twice stabbed lady beetle on my hat the other day, which was odd because that's a species I have NEVER seen in NY before now.

No problem, happy to help! Cycloneda sanguinea is a southern species, it doesn't occur in New York. Cycloneda is easy to ID in the Northeast, we only have C. munda :)

Thank you for the compliment Marco and Abigail, and also for the ID correction Abigail! Lady Beetles are a difficult one for me, I have a hard time distinguishing the markings on the head for some reason. (i think it's because they are so small, and with this one the angle of the photo wasn't the best) :-)

Lovely! And a native species of lady beetle, which is always nice to see :)

Awesome!