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| Ladybird species recorded at Ballachurry to date |
At the beginning of Lockdown when we were all facing the prospect of being confined to our own backyards I promised you some ideas about how you might be able to spend the time in your garden. Unfortunately I was overtaken by events and have not been able to follow up on that promise until now. Restrictions have now been relaxed somewhat and so what follows is equally applicable to your visits to the wider countryside as well as your own locality.
This post is all about looking for Ladybirds, their larvae and perhaps, if you enjoy Citizen Science, reporting them to the Ladybird Survey. First off let's look at the life cycle of Ladybirds:
1) THE LIFE CYCLE OF LADYBIRDS
Egg> Larva>Pupa> Adult.
Ladybirds come out of hibernation in the spring with two things in mind – food and finding a mate.
The 7-spot is Ballachurry’s most common Ladybird. It eats aphids so is a good friend to have in the garden too. Having found a mate it lays yellow-orange skittle shaped eggs, often on the underside of leaves. Nettles are a good place to look for them. The adult parents then soon die, their work done. The eggs take 4 to 5 days to hatch.
The eggs hatch out into larva which look like this
The larvae are tiny at first but a diet of more aphids makes them grow rapidly. They shed their skins to go through 4 stages (called instars) getting bigger each time. They can remain as larvae for several weeks. Eventually the larva will attach itself to a plant – often a nettle leaf at Ballachurry – and hunches over to pupate. They are vulnerable at this stage as they can’t run away!
A Pupa looks like this - the colour may vary.
The adult Ladybird emerges from the Pupa after 5- 7 days. It is full-sized. There is no such thing as a “baby ladybird”. If a Ladybird looks very small it is a particular species such as a 10 spot.
These summer 7-spot adults go on eating aphids. They will hibernate through the winter and emerge again in the spring to begin the cycle all over again.
At Ballachurry it’s often possible to see hibernating 7-spot Ladybirds in the gorse and on thistles. Presumably the prickles give them some protection.
Not all species of Ladybird feed on aphids. Some prefer scale insect, others mildew or plants.
The UK has about 47 species of Ladybird. The Isle of Man only about 12, some very rare or maybe just under recorded.
The species for which I found records here in the Isle of Man are:
2-spot
7-spot
10-spot
11-spot
The species for which I found records here in the Isle of Man are:
2-spot
7-spot
10-spot
11-spot
14-spot
16-spot
18-spot
Orange Ladybird
Hieroglyphic Ladybird
Harlequin Ladybird
Eyed Ladybird
Larch Ladybird
2) Next, something altogether more professional than my efforts above! The Ladybird Survey held 3 live interactive Webinars lately and have now put them on their website too. There are 2 about adult ladybirds and one about larvae.
https://www.coleoptera.org.uk/
Helen Roy and Peter Brown, 2 of the presenters, are the people who will be looking at your records and sending the verification emails to you if you follow the instructions below. Very nice to fit names and faces.
3) Finally, here's how you can use your mobile phone to send in a ladybird record
16-spot
18-spot
Orange Ladybird
Hieroglyphic Ladybird
Harlequin Ladybird
Eyed Ladybird
Larch Ladybird
2) Next, something altogether more professional than my efforts above! The Ladybird Survey held 3 live interactive Webinars lately and have now put them on their website too. There are 2 about adult ladybirds and one about larvae.
https://www.coleoptera.org.uk/
Helen Roy and Peter Brown, 2 of the presenters, are the people who will be looking at your records and sending the verification emails to you if you follow the instructions below. Very nice to fit names and faces.
3) Finally, here's how you can use your mobile phone to send in a ladybird record
You may have seen this already if you came along to our Ballachurry Open Day last August or if you have visited the bird hide there.
HOW YOU CAN HELP RECORD LADYBIRDS
USING YOUR SMARTPHONE
USING YOUR SMARTPHONE
Download the app to your phone:
Register your name, email address etc.
Try to take a photo of the Ladybird with your phone for ID
purposes.
Try to identify your Ladybird from the Species Info section
of the App.
Fill in the details on the Record section of the App. – the
grid reference puts itself in automatically.
Attach your photo.
Press SEND.
Later you will receive an email from an expert confirming that you have identified your Ladybird correctly (or not!)
Your Ladybird records are saved on your phone so you can check back any time.
? If you can’t identify your ladybird from the species photos you can email the picture to hele@ceh.ac.uk to ask for help or simply list it as a 7-spot on the App. and ask for help in the comments section.
Here are some screen shots to illustrate what to do
First, take a photo of the Ladybird with your mobile phone
Choose Record
Tap Species and you will get a drop down list to help with identification. Tap the one you want to record.
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Fill in the other fields and add your photo with the camera icon at the bottom of the screen.
Press SEND top right
All the records you send in are saved to your phone
All these records will come back to the IOM National Biodiversity Network Atlas which can be found here: https://isleofman.nbnatlas.org/
All these records will come back to the IOM National Biodiversity Network Atlas which can be found here: https://isleofman.nbnatlas.org/
