{"id":5656,"date":"2019-06-08T18:49:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T17:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hlbphotography.com\/blog\/?p=5656"},"modified":"2019-06-08T18:49:15","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T17:49:15","slug":"30-days-wild-2019-day-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hlbphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/30-days-wild-2019-day-08\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Days Wild 2019 \u2013 Day 08"},"content":{"rendered":"

This afternoon I searched for ladybirds in the garden.  Last weekend I spotted a couple of ladybird larvae in my Mum’s garden; she has been gardening for years but had never seen them before!  This weekend I decided to see how many she had hiding in the flowers.  After a little searching I found two 7-spots (Coccinella septempunctata) sunning themselves on some leaves…<\/p>\n

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…and then two 7-spot larvae.  Sadly one of them had passed away but the other was hunting for food.  <\/p>\n

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As I was watching I noticed some yellow in amongst the leaves, it was a 22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata).  <\/p>\n

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Ladybirds or ladybugs (if you are American) are common in our gardens and  can be found throughout the UK. There are 46 species in the UK and the 7-spot is one of the most common.  They feed on a variety of aphid species and can usually be found where there is an influx of their food source; they can consume approx. 5500 in their lifetime! and why ladybirds are called a gardeners friend. The 22-spot on the other hand doesn’t eat aphids it feeds on mildew on a variety of plants, usually umbellifers and low-growing shrubs.<\/p>\n

All of my finds have been added to iRecord \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t

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