Friday, April 10, 2015

The First Ladybug of the Season


Have you spotted your first ladybug yet, this spring?


I love how the first spotting is always a surprise.  We were out checking out one of the holes made by our neighborhood ground squirrels, in the vacant lot next to our house...


...when a little flash of red caught our eye.


Did you know there are about 5000 species of ladybug worldwide, and more than 400 in the United States alone (per National Geographic Kids)?  Our first ladybug of the season, this year, was a Coccinella septempunctata, or Seven Spotted Ladybug...


...easily identified by its 7 spots, black pronotum (the part that looks like the head) with two large white (eye-like) spots (thanks to a handy dandy identification chart from the Lost Ladybug Project). 

How about you?  What kind of ladybugs have you spotted so far?
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8 comments:

  1. DesireeApril 10, 2015 at 4:53 PM

    We'll have to keep our eyes out for the first ladybug. I don't think we have yet! Thanks for the reminder.

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  2. AnonymousApril 10, 2015 at 5:23 PM

    We love Ladybugs. We had them as pets, and learned a lot from them.
    Here is a post of our ladybug learning folder:
    http://www.duallearninghomeschool.blogspot.com/2015/02/home-learning-21015.html

    In this post you can see their habitat:
    http://www.duallearninghomeschool.blogspot.com/2015/01/home-learning-12215.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. PhyllisApril 11, 2015 at 6:07 AM

    I haven't seen any outside yet, but we hsve these yellow orange ones that live in our house all year despite my trying to get them out. How do you go about identifying them.Our field guide only says ladybug without any variations.

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  4. An Almost Unschooling MomApril 11, 2015 at 6:13 AM

    Phyllis - Try this link - http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Ladybug

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousApril 11, 2015 at 6:18 PM

    Always happy to see that very first ladybug :)

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  6. TiciaApril 11, 2015 at 8:42 PM

    Now I'm trying to remember if we've seen one yet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. claireshomeeducationApril 12, 2015 at 3:59 PM

    Yup, my littlest brought me in two just today. They are very beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. maryanne @ mama smilesApril 15, 2015 at 10:21 PM

    We got to see a whole bunch this year - a swarm decided to settle near us for a few days. It was great! I will have to go back to the photos to try to identify them.

    ReplyDelete

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