The oxeye daisies in the garden are just coming into flower. I noticed these tiny ladybirds which turn out to be Sixteen-spot Ladybirds. Not, as I first thought, Twentytwo-spot (sic), being a creamy rather than bright yellow colour.
To identify them, I turned to my copy of the folding, laminated WildID guide to ladybirds, which lists 26 species present in the UK. The name is not exactly imaginative or even strictly accurate – they can have between 13 and 18 spots. There are much more appealing names for other species: the Harlequin, the Hieroglyphic, the Eyed, the Cream-streaked, the Larch, the Adonis’ and the Bryony, for example. The Sixteen-spot is described as widespread in the south of Britain, scarce further north.
Further research revealed that there are 46 UK species in all, but that only these 26 are readily identifiable or even recognisable as ladybirds. Globally, there are known to be over 6,000 species of the family of Coccinellidae to which ladybirds belong. They are apparently both predatory and promiscuous. The “lady” part of their name refers to ‘mother Mary’ or ‘Our Lady’, often shown wearing a red cloak in early paintings, and the seven spots of one species have been assigned to her seven joys and seven sorrows.
Typically, where humans have intervened they have created a problem. The Harlequin Ladybird, which originated in Asia, was introduced into the USA and mainland Europe as a biological control agent. They made their way across the English Channel and have spread here in Britain and Ireland. The WildID guide says that it has been described as “the most invasive ladybird species on earth”, posing “a serious threat to biodiversity” and unlike many other species it can reproduce continuously through most of the seasons.
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