I love ladybugs and was thrilled to spot this one on Monday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. When I posted this photo on Facebook, one viewer noted that this is a Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis), a non-native species that has become the most common species in the United States since it was deliberately introduced into the country in 1916 in an attempt to control the spread of aphids.
How can you tell a native ladybug from the Asian ladybug? Several sources on-line note that the Asian ladybug has a white marking behind its head in the openings of what looks like a black M, as you can see on the ladybug in my photo. If you are interested in learning more about the differences, check out this fascinating article at thespruce.com, The Differences Between Ladybugs and Asian Lady Beetles.
Whether native or not, this ladybug in my eyes is beautiful. If you want to see something really cool, click on the photo and check out the details on the ladybug’s front foot. I never knew that ladybugs have two tiny toes.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
That is a real beauty, Mike, and nicely photographed, too!
Thanks, Pete. The ladybug was pretty cooperative and I was able to take my time and frame the shot, which in this case I did while kneeling in the soggy grass.
The sacrifices we make for our art, Mike! 🙂
That’s one shiny ladybug you caught there
If the clouds had cooperated a bit better I might have been minimize the shine, but I can’t complain, because I got a relatively sharp shot before the ladybug moved away. 🙂
I really like seeing ladybugs, Mike. Thanks for sharing this one.
Thanks, Dan. The only people I know who don’t like ladybugs are ones who find an infestation of them inside of their houses.
That would put a damper on it.
I learned something about ladybugs in the Rockport cemetery. Even when half of their ‘shell’ is smooshed, they still can fly perfectly well. This is a cutie, for sure.
Thanks. I have definitely seen them fly away when I was trying to photograph them. This one, fortunately, was cooperative and did not seem to be bothered by my presence.
This is a lovely close-up photo of my favorite “bug” since childhood. Benjamin shares my fondness for them too. My Gram believed that Ladybugs were good luck to have in the garden or in the home. She called them “Lady Birds” and they loved her gardens in warm weather and her back sunporch in the cooler seasons. I grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania in an area which was largely populated by those of German origins and who were more commonly referred to by then as the Pennsylvania Dutch. It was from a neighbor friend of Gram’s that we learned the German word “Marienkafer” which refers to the Virgin Mary and translates as “Mary’s Beetle”. I believe that here in Rhode Island there are mostly the Asian Lady Beetles as some years ago an attempt at reintroducing the Native Ladybugs met with failure. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
They are my favorite bugs too. I remember about 10 years ago I was on an extremely stressful business trip and a ladybug was in my hotel room for about a week and became a very welcome companion. I decided that she would bring me a good fortune, and so she did. Was it simply my decision, or did she actually do that? Does it matter? But one thing, Mike: it looks like a W to me. 😉
Thank you for the link. Very interesting to me, as a gardener.
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Very Nice Mike! Always like images of Ladybugs!
I can well believe that these are the most common species in the US now. Every spring when we first arrive at the cabin to check things out, we find the carcasses of (literally) several thousand of them in and around the garage It takes me a few hours to sweep and vacuum them all up. I’m afraid I have to report that they are not my favorite insects now, but I do remember when, back in my youth in Michigan, I was always delighted to see one (surely a native, with just one black spot on each wing case)..
‘Two tiny toes’ has a certain ring to it … I like it 🙂
Thanks, Liz. Could you see them?
Yes I could! I wouldn’t have noticed without your prompt though as I had to look hard.