Ladybug Spots

So what is the function of ladybug spots?


Ladybug spot patterns vary widely from species to species and come in a variety of colors. Most people are familiar with black spots, but they also come in brown, blue, beige, green, orange, red, yellow and white. Just as the shell or elytra comes in a variety of colors other than the popular red including black, beige, pink, yellow, orange, brown, green and blue.

Ladybugs are warning predators with their spot patterns that they taste bad. They are poisonous to small predators such as lizards and birds that might consider them for a meal. Many species also have eyespots that further deter predators.

OK, so what's an eyespot? Look at that ladybug to the left. That's the Eyed Ladybird, Anatis Ocellata. Eyespots are just extra decorative spots that look like eyes. They often trick predators by making ladybugs or other animals that have them appear larger. Additionally they are often located away from the head to draw a predators attack away, increasing the ladybug's chance of survival.

Spots also aid us in identifying a ladybugs species. Though not the primary factor in determining a ladybugs species, they are one of the properties that help etymologists and ladybug enthusiasts narrow down what group they might fall into.

The Ladybug Spider!

The Ladybug Spider!


Ladybugs are cute and nice and harmless (except to aphids). Right? Well it seems that a sneaky member of the spider family wants to take advantage of this image. The Ladybug Spider (or Ladybird Spider for the Brits) uses its beautiful red and back body wrap to throw its prey off guard. You can see a Ladybug Spider in action in this YouTube video. (Link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24-h6fXvTSs ) Beautiful macro photos of the LadyBird Spider and some other insects that have taken on the appearance of ladybugs are available on this blog. (Link to http://sgmacro.blogspot.com/2011/06/beauty-of-ladybird-mimicry.html )

The old saying that "you tell a leopard by its spots" apparently doesn't apply for ladybugs!

The Ladybug by Sharla Lee Shults


A beautiful video, The Ladybug, just came to my attention. (link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hrrcznCqW8 ) It combines poetry, photography and music in a most pleasuring way. Many thanks to Sharla Lee Shults, the creator. You may want to take a moment to visit her blog, Catnipoflife. (link to http://catnipoflife.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/spirit-of-the-ladybug/#comments ) There she has many other inspiring poetic entries, mostly dealing with nature themes.

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!