Sunday Spinelessness – Gotcha!
I only have moment to spare today, so I thought I’d share a life and death moment from the garden.
The fearsomely-spiked creature photographed above is the larva of a ladybird (that is, a beetle of the family Coccinellidae), specifically the New Zealand and Australian native species Apolinus lividigaster. It’s meal is an ahpid, though I couldn’t tell you which species.
Learning that ladybirds are vicious predators (adults have more or less that same tastes as their larvae) might go some way to undermine ladybirds’ status as a “cute” insect that escapes the “yuck” reaction so many of their kin seem to evoke. But it’s worth remembering that ladybirds are very useful. Most species specialise in eating plant-sucking insects like aphids and scales, and so can be a boon to gardeners. On a larger scale, predatory ladybirds are often introduced as “biological” control to help keep pest numbers low.
0 Responses to “Sunday Spinelessness – Gotcha!”
Why is biological in scare quotes? Are ladybugs cybernetic?
Heh, I was aiming for “biological control” but I’m tempted to leave it now – cybernetic ladybirds ridding your garden of aphid sounds _awesome_