Nature on our doorsteps: Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home . . .
Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into nature on our doorsteps and the beautiful biodiversity of its plants and wildlife.
There are 19 different species of Ladybirds in Ireland.
Some of these are very small and are not often seen in gardens or parks, but others, like the 7-spot Ladybird, are well known by most people.
Ladybirds are beetles, and like most beetles their hardened front wings meet in the middle of their rounded, dome-shaped backs.
These can be coloured red, yellow, orange or black, and they protect the insect’s more flexible flight wings that are folded away neatly underneath.
Different Ladybird species are identified by the colour of their forewings and by the number, colour, and location of spots across their body.
The colour of their legs is also a feature, and these can be either black or brown.
Their bright colours warn creatures like birds, small mammals, and other larger insects that they taste very unpleasant.
This Cream-spot ladybird is unfolding its flight wings from beneath its coloured wing cases.
If Ladybirds feel particularly threatened, they can also produce a really nasty smelling liquid from between the joints on their legs which forces potential predators to retreat quickly.
Both the Ladybird adult and larva feed on greenfly and aphids.
This makes them very important in the control of these insects in the garden and in our crops.
The 22-spot Ladybird, however, feeds only on plant mildew, while others can eat vegetation.
Ireland’s largest native Ladybird is the Eyed-Ladybird, named for the yellow rings around its black spots. It only eats aphids that feed on the needle-like leaves of the Pine tree.
The sap in the pine leaves gives the aphids a particular scent, and the Eyed-Ladybird uses this smell to find and devour them.
Adult Ladybirds hibernate over winter in dead leaf litter. In springtime, they emerge and mate, and lay eggs that hatch in a few days.
The young larvae that hatch out and begin feeding immediately. When these are mature they form pupae, and they will emerge as new adults in late summer.