Picture of Harlequin Ladybird.
We went to Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve Wonders of the Wash event in Skegness, and this rare insect visitor to the East Coast landed on my sons trousers.
We were told the Harlequin Ladybird is originally from Africa and is a predator that eats anything it sees including our native Ladybirds, but on the net there’s mixed views on this. If anyone has any information please leave a comment below, I’d love to know more
Photographer: Marie
Marie, I was fascinated by your ‘Painted LAdy Reflection’ image and, like myself found something even more beautiful once you uploaded to your computer. I am severely visually-impared, but use a digital camera my daughter gave me, for when I walk up on High Meadow, where over a period of many years, I have had an interest in the Harlequin Ladybird. Unfortunately, Professor Mike Majerus, who was an expert, has passed away, but during a period of time my Sons and I collected over a thousand of these, which we deposited into the freezer for the most humane way of removing them from the local environment, taking into consideration the impact on the local ‘native’ species, not only common ladybirds, but the HQ larvae is a voracious feeder.
I trust this clarifies your query
Best Regards
Mike of the Meadow
Hi Mike
Thank you for your comment it helped. The Harlequin Ladybird picture above that I took was the first time I had ever seen one and I haven’t seen another one since, so finding out more about them is interesting.
This year in my garden I had hundreds of native Ladybirds, happily eating green fly off of my plants, so maybe here in Skegness the Harlequin Ladybird hasn’t achieved a foot hold yet.
Thank you for the compliment about my Painted Lady Picture, I’m glad you liked it. I’ve only been interested in Photography for about three years and started this picture blog so others could see the pictures I took, it’s nice to have a comment about my picture, Thank you.
Marie