Flying Turtles?

A recent genetic study carried out at Boston University suggests that turtles evolved from the same ancestor as that of birds. This research challenges previous anatomical and Paleontological assessments that indicated that turtles either evolved from the ancestor of all reptiles or evolved from the ancestor of snakes and lizards. Nick Crawford, a post-graduate researcher in biology, and his colleagues attained these findings by using computational analysis to examine regions of the different animals' genomes. They recently published their results in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Genetic analysis such as this is allowing us to better understand how branches of life diverged to give us the the many varieties of animals that currently inhabit the earth.

Even without knowing about such research it is easy to image the link between turtles and birds when one sees a sea turtle "flying" through the water. Shop for Flying Turtles and Flying Ladybugs at Turtle Treasures & the LadyBug Shop, where you can find a large collection of gifts for everyone!

Ladybugs as Jewelry Art

If you notice a beautiful ladybug on a friends blouse or suit, look more closely - it may be one of the realistic and beautiful creations of New York artist Diana Eng. 

Ms. Erg has recently created a line of very realistic ladybug pins that are all the rage.  And she has not created just one ladybug pin, but an entire collection.  She produces precise reproductions o f eleven different species of our favorite little creature.  Each is hand cast in silver and then carefully enameled in realistic colors.  Since each pin is the actual size of a real ladybug, this is very pains-taking art work!  Ms. Eng created the jewelry in part to draw attention to the rich bio-diversity of life in even a single family of insect.  However, if she had goes on to replicate every species of ladybug she has a lot of work to do.  There are approximately 5000 known species of ladybugs in the world!  On her blog Diana Eng shows how she created these ladybug pins. (Check out her blog on finger nail painting inspired by her pins.) Browse LadyBug Shop's large collection of ladybug jewelry, including ladybug necklaces, ladybug bracelets, ladybug pins and more!

Releasing Live Ladybugs in Your Garden

Here in lovely downtown Milford, Delaware we just had our 9th Annual Bug & Bud Festival.  And as they have every year since the Festival began our wonderful friends at Ladies in Red ( link to in Bend, Oregon sent the LadyBug Shop a carton of live ladybugs to distribute during the Festival.  They do this completely free of charge to us - they even pay for the postage!  In turn we give the packets of ladybugs out to families attending the Festival.  As always this was a big hit.

If you have not released live ladybugs in your garden before, you might want to see what to expect.  The Creative Salad ( link to http://www.thecreativesalad.com/2012/04/24/the-ladybug-release/ ) just ran a nice story with pictures describing the process.  You need to be patient if you are releasing the ladybugs to rid your garden of aphids.  While the ladybugs you release will likely disperse quickly, you need only a few to set up housekeeping in your garden. Both the adult ladybug and the young larva have a ravenous appetite for aphids.  An adult can eat fifty aphids in a day and a larva can eat twenty five!