Little things

Guess what!!! It rained today! Jut after mummy left for work it actually rained, and I certainly enjoyed it. It makes a lovely noise on the paving outside and lightens the air a little bit (or maybe just stops the sun shining in my room so much to make the air heavy). However mummy has still had to open the patio door for some fresh air this evening.

So we have some hedging bushes of some sort (not entirely sure what they actually are) up by the little duck lake and if you look closely you can see lots of little black and orange lumps on the leaves. Some are more orange than others and some appear to be a little crusty:

Yup that last one is even standing on end. So what are they I hear you asking. Well does it help if I tell you that they are a well known animal that many people love to see?

Don't they look strange and quite intimidating actually with their spikey bodies. However the bodies are actually really soft, and they would much prefer to eat a whole host of aphids than try to eat a human (or a cockatoo for that matter). They appear to be coming onto these leaves to pupate, possibly because this patch of leaves gets the late afternoon, right through the evening sunshine, but is quite well shaded from the high mid-day sun!

Have you got it yet? Of course it is a ladybird. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the adults on this bush, but mummy did previously take this photo on her allotment, a few years ago now (she is getting old):

In the close-up you can just make out that the yellow blob is the ladybird (look at the bottom and you will see its head). It is yellow as it has just hatched out and the wing cases are still soft. As they harden they go red with black spots (or cream etc). Each ladybird species has its own unique larva and pupal case - some have more spines, more orange, less orange etc. The ones on the bushes round here seem to be harlequin ladybirds, and the one adult that was seen on them was indeed a harlequin.

Harlequin ladybirds have a bad reputation, but the main reason they seem to be so numerous is because they are very social and group together. Also they are very voracious and will eat anything! They eat a lot more aphids per larva than most other ladybirds. However, this does not mean that they cannot live in hrmony with other species (just that there needs to be a lot of aphids about to keep them full). When mummy had an allotment she grew Dwarf Broad Beans and there were both Harlequin and 7-spot ladybirds that thrived due to the large amount of aphids. Both species developed into adults in good numbers, so the larva of other ladybirds are probably not high on the preferences for the harlequin larva.

This little beetle was also on the leaves:

No idea what he is though so open to ideas :)

Right my bedtime now - will catch up soon!