Harlequin?

Ladybird larva

By the time I got round to pruning the Minarettes, the young leaves on the cherry were pretty badly infested with blackfly. I didn’t think too much of it, just pruned the tree and threw the prunings into the compost heap.

When I went out to the Grow Dome this morning, I noticed a lot of blackfly crawling around on the lid of the compost bin. It was like blackfly rush hour. I was going to do something about it, but then I saw that a ladybird larva was munching away happily. Later on in the day, he’d been joined by some pals.

I thought that was good news, but having looked closely at the photograph I’m not so sure. The ladybird larvae that I’ve seen previously looked similar to this, but weren’t spiny. I think these ones may be Harlequin ladybirds – the alien invader.

I’ve submitted a report, and the best photo, to the Harlequin Ladybird Survey. Hopefully they will be able to make an identification from the photograph, and let me know which species these little beasties are.

Posted 28 June 2008, 21:45.   Posted in .

1 Comments for Harlequin?

  1. I have had a response from the Harlequin Ladybird Survey:

    “Dear Emma

    Thank you very much for your ladybird photo(s). You have correctly identified the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis. This is a valuable record for our survey.

    You may like to know that we now have confirmed records of the harlequin from many sites across southern England, East Anglia and the Midlands. Further north there are a large number of records from Derbyshire and Cheshire and some from Staffordshire, Humberside, Lancashire, Yorkshire and county Durham. The harlequin has reached Wales, with records from Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. There are now also isolated records from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

    If you would like to download a colour ladybird identification sheet, please click on the link at this website page
    http://www.ladybird-survey.org/UKladybirds/UKladybirds.htm

    Thanks again and best wishes

    Peter Brown
    UK Ladybird Survey
    email: harlequin-survey@ceh.ac.uk
    website: www.harlequin-survey.org”

    Emma · Jul 3, 01:00 PM

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