You never know what you might come upon out in nature. Yesterday, I spotted this dead ladybug (Hippodamia convergens) attached to a (#$%@# invasive) Malta star-thistle leaf. Very odd. I wondered if maybe the ladybug got stuck somehow to the leaf and starved to death? I'm going to share these images with Rebecca Smyth, who's with the Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell University, and see if she has any thoughts.
APRIL 10, 2016 UPDATE–I was out this afternoon, walking a meadow that belongs to friends who want to know what good and bad species they have growing. That's another post. Anyway, I spotted this ladybug larva attached to a Malta star-thistle. Hmmm. The one I found dead must not have been able to dislodge itself from its shell? I'm still perplexed, but now I now a little more than before I first posted this post–my dead ladybug had been a larva shortly before its demise.
No comments:
Post a Comment