• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The Ladybird thread (4 Viewers)

Dave Adshead said:
Last week, I purchased the Collins field guide, Insects of Britain and Northern Europe, its got a few ladybirds in, but this isn't one of them.

Hello Dave,

Sadly, Field Guides are generally useless, as they only show a very small number of specimens from each insect order. The chances of you finding an insect you can identify from a general fieldguide are greatly outweighed by the number you cannot identify from the same book.

The larger the geographical area covered by the book the less chance you have of identifying the specimens you may find from that book.

Insects are the most diverse form of life on Earth (above the microscopic level i.e. Bacteria and virus's). They outnumber all the other life forms put together by several times.

Well over 1 million insects have been described worldwide, and some authorities estimate that there at least another million species yet to be found and described.

Even the British insects which are arguably the best studied insects in the world are pooly served by books on identification. Certainly Butterflies, the larger moths and Dragonflies are well covered with recent publications, but many other orders, or less popular groups have not had a good identification guide published on them in the last half century.

Harry
 
I agree that it looks like an Halyzia 16-guttata, 16 spot Orange Ladybird, but yes the texts available are sometimes not too helpful.
 
trealawboy said:

Also the UK ladybird survey sites which have UK species plus Harlequin:

http://www.ladybird-survey.org/UKladybirds/UKladybirds.htm
http://www.ladybird-survey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/londonla.htm
and of course http://www.eimagesite.net/s1/gst/run.cgi?action=sgbrowse&template=ukladybird
which hasat least one non-UK species (transverse) but you need to search for it.

Oh and yes it is Orange Ladybird Halyzia sedecimguttata.
Hugh
 
Ladybirds

One of the reasons for non-inclusion may be that until a few years ago the Orange ladybird was quite rare. 20 years ago they were rarely seen in ancient oak woods, then they appeared more commonly (often attracted to light). At the turn of the century there were several observations of thousands of them on beech and ash trees. Now regularly seen in London and not uncommon in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
Anyone interested in ladybirds should read Roger Hawkins' 'Ladybirds of Surrey' - deals with all British ladybirds and well-illustrated. (Or, a bit of self-advertisement) you might like to look at my web-site
www.ladybird-survey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/londonla.htm )
Paul
Dave Adshead said:
Last week, I purchased the Collins field guide, Insects of Britain and Northern Europe, its got a few ladybirds in, but this isn't one of them.
 
'Harlequins'

Strange, to the best of my knowledge it hasn't reached Somerset yet - a couple in Devon but still mainly in SE England (and Derby). There's a regularly up-dated map at www.harlequin-survey.org
Pal
Stranger said:
Hi
Our local paper,Weston and Worle news,has an article on Harlequin Ladybirds in which it states the Harlequin is outcompeting the natives for food in Somerset.It also says the Harlequin is preying on native Ladybirds when food is short.
I have not noticed many Ladybirds or Aphids in the garden this year,maybe it`s the lack of Aphids that is causing the Ladybird scarcity.
 
Ladybirds by region?

Hello Neil, I agree, it has actually been the best year for ladybirds since 1997 in London and the SE generally. It's perhaps always true that ladybirds are more numerous in the SE because it's warmer - I never see enormous numbers in S. Yorkshire.
Neil Harvey said:
There are plenty of all of the common species here in Essex; maybe a regional thing?
 
numeric names

Hello Harry,
Quite a lot of beetles have Latin numbers in their names but it's only with ladybirds that they are commonly printed as numerals. As you say, the 14-spot ladybird is Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata which is a bit of a mouthful so it's commonly printed as S. 24-punctata. Lazy ladybird people go even further and refer to it as S24p along with A10p, H16g &c!
Cheers, Paul
harry eales said:
Hello LB,

I think your correct in that numbers are unique to Ladybirds. However, as I understand it, the use of numbers is simply a way of making the writing of a scientific name easier and more perhaps understandable to most people and especially those of us who haven't had the benefit of being taught Latin.

Most amateur naturalists would recognise bipunctata as two spot and decipunctata as 10 spot, but how many would recognise the number 7 or 22 when written in Latin? A scientist or taxonomist may use the full Latin specific name in a scientific paper, but it likely that it will only be read by another of the same ilk, who will understand it.

I wonder how long it will be before we see Five and Six spot Burnet Moths written as 5 spot and 6 spot?

Harry
 
ladybird distribution

Not a book but if you go to www.searchnbn.net and find the Coccinellidae, you can find maps for the British species.
The Majerus and Majerus & Kearns books are now somewhat out of date and I would recommend Roger Hawkins 'Ladybirds of Surrey' (from Surrey Wildlife Trust) - has a lot of Surrey stuff, of course, but deals with all British species in detail and with great pictures.
And, as a last resort, you might want to try my site at www.ladybird-survey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/londonla.htm ....
Cheers, Paul
Colin said:
I have been searching for some distribution information, preferably in the form of maps for UK ladybirds. I have tried Google etc and have found several interesting sites with information on hibernation types, id pointers especially the tricky ones with lots of variation etc. but I have not found any distribution maps. Can anyone help? :stuck:

Secondly, can anyone recommend any books on ladybirds, preferably UK and Europe.

Thanks in advance.
 
ladybird distribution ps

I forgot to mention that Mike Majerus is writing a new book up-dating his New Naturalist 'Ladybirds' which will deal with ladybirds of the world!
Worth waiting for?
Paul
paul mabbott said:
Not a book but if you go to www.searchnbn.net and find the Coccinellidae, you can find maps for the British species.
The Majerus and Majerus & Kearns books are now somewhat out of date and I would recommend Roger Hawkins 'Ladybirds of Surrey' (from Surrey Wildlife Trust) - has a lot of Surrey stuff, of course, but deals with all British species in detail and with great pictures.
And, as a last resort, you might want to try my site at www.ladybird-survey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/londonla.htm ....
Cheers, Paul
 
Harmonia axyridis - the 'harlequin' ladybird

In the future we may be able to blame the absence of native ladybirds on the presence of the invading H. axyridis. Not yet except, perhaps, in London where it is almost everywhere in considerable numbers. As last year, there has been late breeding and many adults are in flight so it could turn up anywhere - there are lots of reports from the Suffolk countryside, for instance - last year it was quite numerous around Ipswich; clearly it is spreading.
There are large numbers in flight in Belgium so we might expect (as last year) many sightings on the S-E coast from Sussex to Norfolk. The established colonies in the SE seem to be gradually expanding inland.
Please report any sightings to either your local survey or to the national one at www.harlequin-survey.org
Thanks, Paul

paul mabbott said:
Strange, to the best of my knowledge it hasn't reached Somerset yet - a couple in Devon but still mainly in SE England (and Derby). There's a regularly up-dated map at www.harlequin-survey.org
Pal
 
Ladybird ID?

Does anyone recognise this little fellow.

5mm in length and found on 16th Spetember in Easter Ross, Scotland
 

Attachments

  • 444.jpg
    444.jpg
    65.5 KB · Views: 219
10-spot

This is a nice picture of the ten-spot ladybird Adalia decempunctata. I suppose it might just about have ten spots? That would be unusual .... Told from most other ladybirds of its size by the pale legs and the spotty forebody. Quite a long way north then ... Winds blowing?
Paul
SleepyLizard said:
Does anyone recognise this little fellow.

5mm in length and found on 16th Spetember in Easter Ross, Scotland
 
paul mabbott said:
Strange, to the best of my knowledge it hasn't reached Somerset yet - a couple in Devon but still mainly in SE England (and Derby). There's a regularly up-dated map at www.harlequin-survey.org
Pal

Must admit I have`nt actually seen any Harlequins around here.
Just goes to show I should`nt believe everything in the papers.
Still a shortage of Ladybirds in my garden,although I had an infestation of Blackfly on the runner beans which I thought might attract them.
Total count for this year has only been four.
 
Distribution

Very interesting. At this time of year the Adalia species (2- and 10-spot) do fly around looking for somewhere to overwinter so they're quite often seen (often indoors). The 10-spot is mainly a tree-dweller so tends to be seen less often than the other common red ladybirds - but in this season it shares their need to find shelter.
I hope you'll submit your record to the national survey. The maps at NBN are perhaps a little out of date *and/or* distribution could be changing along with the climate. Also there are large parts of the UK that were/are always under-recorded for all insects - Scotland north of Edinburgh is one of these!
Cheers, Paul

SleepyLizard said:
Thanks for that Paul - Now I no what to look for, there are quite a few similar looking ones out there and the distribution map ( Click here ) shows them not too far south of me.
 
ladybirds in autumn

The 'harlequin' ladybird is still very active all over SE England although especially in London and the Kent coast. They are running out of food and so are taking flight in large numbers; also, soon, they will start looking for sheltered places to overwinter.
This is, oddly, a good time to see most ladybirds, not just the invader. As the leaves fall off trees and aphids disappear, the ladybirds shelter on tree trunks - including the species that spend most of the year in the tree-tops.
Take a look at any tree trunk (but especially limes and sycamores) and you'll find at least one or two ladybirds. In some cases (such as the orange ladybird, Halyzia sedecimguttata) you might see large aggregates.
Cheers, Paul

Stranger said:
Must admit I have`nt actually seen any Harlequins around here.
Just goes to show I should`nt believe everything in the papers.
Still a shortage of Ladybirds in my garden,although I had an infestation of Blackfly on the runner beans which I thought might attract them.
Total count for this year has only been four.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top