Ladybird Surprise

glsammy · #1 (**permalink**) 19-11-2011, 05:53 PM

Today we went to a local park. I was surprised to see the following:

Even more surprised to see this one:

This was one of four we saw. Is this normal?? Larvae in mid November?
I can understand the others, making the most of a bit of warm November sunshine.
Altogether there were literally hundreds of them all in a very small area, split between the round concrete ball and nearby fence posts.

Whatever the reason it was a welcome sight.

aeshna5 · #2 (**permalink**) 19-11-2011, 06:14 PM

Interesting mix of mainly 7-spots with a couple of Harlequins.

I came across 2 7-spots + a single Harlequin a couple of days ago, but not as impressive as your group.

The larva is a Harlequin.

It's good to still be seeing some insects.

glsammy · #3 (**permalink**) 19-11-2011, 06:18 PM

Yes thanks. There were also a fair number of 2 spots plus a few others. The vast overall majority was 7 spots.
It's been a very good 7 spots year around our sites. We've seen many mass gatherings but I never expected to see so many today.

aeshna5 · #4 (**permalink**) 19-11-2011, 06:25 PM

Yes, it's been a really good year for 7-spots (at least last 3 years seem to have been good for this species) wherever I've been.

Haven't seen many 2-spots + numbers of Harlequin much fewer than recent autumns in my part of west London.

glsammy · #5 (**permalink**) 19-11-2011, 07:35 PM

Same here. Harlequins have been few and far between.

It's so different from a few years back when we saw vast numbers of Harlequins and hardly any native ones.

Africa · #6 (**permalink**) 21-11-2011, 06:20 PM

There are also quite a few Harlequin larvae here at Hull. Harlequin are multivoltine and these are probably the second (or third, who knows?) Harlequin generation. 7 spots have a single generation a year so there shouldn't be any larvae around. Cool photo of an overwintering cluster.

Paul mabbott · #7 (**permalink**) 22-11-2011, 09:10 AM

We still have Harmonia axyridis emerging from pupae but I've not seen any larvae for a few weeks. I suspect that this will be the final generation of the year although in the South, especially London, there may be another generation before the frosts come! A few years back 'harlequins' were emerging up to the second week in December.