Posts Tagged: lady beetle
Flight of the Ladybug, The Origami Master
Ladybug, ladybug fly away homeYour house is on fire and your children are goneAll except one, and her name is AnnAnd she hid under the baking pan. So says a traditional nursery rhyme traced back to 1744 when it appeared in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Songbook, according to Wikipedia. The first...
This lady beetle, aka ladybug, appears to ponder its next move. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Which way to go? Or to go at all? Decisions, decisions. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The ladybug decides to back up a bit. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Watch me go! A ladybug unfolds its wings and is ready for take-off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
They Are Not Your Enemy
They're not exactly cute, cuddly little critters. Some folks say they look like miniature alligators or "ugly, spiky orange-and-black buggy thingies." Many a novice gardener has glanced at them, smashed them, and yelled "Gotcha! Now stay outta my garden, y'hear? What they killed were the...
Dorsal view of the larva of a lady beetle, aka ladybug, on a strawberry plant in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Side view of a lady beetle (aka ladybug) larva. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
You called? Yes, those are my offspring. A lady beetle peers at the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's Friday Fly Day!
It's Friday Fly Day--and time to post images of a syrphid fly. Syrphid flies, often mistaken for honey bees, are pollinators, too. Also known as flower flies and hover flies, syrphids hover over a flower before touching down. "Most species are predaceous, most commonly...
A syrphid fly, a female Scaeva pyrastri, hovers over an Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The syrphid fly licks honey dew from the head of the lady beetle, which had just feasted on the honeydew-producing aphids on a rose bush. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Becoming a Lady Beetle, aka Ladybug, on Labor Day
If you're an entomologist, an agriculturist, a gardener or an insect enthusiast, you've probably seen the life cycle of a lady beetle, aka ladybug: from the egg to the larva to the pupa to the adult. You may have missed the pupal stage when the adult emerges--or mistaken the pupal case...
Welcome to the world! A lady beetle, aka ladybug, emerges from its pupal case. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The lady beetle, aka ladybug, heads up the leaf, leaving its pupal case behind. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A newly emerged lady beetle, aka ladybug, peers at the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Amazing Lady Beetles
If you have roses blooming in your yard in the winter--or trying to bloom--check to see if there's a lady beetle, aka ladybug prowling around. Any aphids? A lady beetle can eat as many as 5000 aphids in its lifetime, so they're the good guys and gals in the garden. "These beetles have...
A lady beetle searching for aphids on a rosebud in the winter. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A toxic chemical, a defense mechanism, oozing from a lady beetle, the prey of a cellar spider in this summer image. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)