I read on the
Edinburgh Natural History Facebook group yesterday that there were hundreds of pine ladybirds in trees alongside the
Water of Leith. Ironically just near where I had finished my plant survey walk the other day. I was annoyed with my own lack of observation skills the other day but determined to see these insects before they start dispersing in the warmer weather (I assume there are such large numbers because they've been hibernating in the trees).
Anyway I hopped on a bus this morning and went to find them! Luckily they were very easy to see once I knew they were there.
Take a closer look and you see that the red markings are heart shaped! (Click on the photo below to enlarge it).
This is the first time I've seen these lovely insects and I wouldn't have known they were there if it wasn't for the Facebook group.
Like may people I'm less than happy with Facebook, but groups like that one are one of the advantages of belonging to FB.....
What a great sighting, they are cute bugs! Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteThey are cute! It looks like they have hearts mixed in with the spots.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about FB. Just like blogging, I am most interested in people/blogs that share my love of nature, not mindless chatter.
I had never picked-up the heart shape, mostly saw a comma. Zoom in again and you can see that the wing case edges are flared.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for going back to document them! It's true they hibernate in great numbers here, then take off!
ReplyDeleteSo pleased you were able to see these.
ReplyDeleteI never realised about the heart shape markings ...
All the best Jan
Sign of warm!!! And spring.
ReplyDeleteWe call them ladybugs here, but I've heard they are called "lady birds" elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm disenchanted with facebook, but have gone in and changed my settings again and gotten rid of apps that were tracking me. I need to stop doing those cute questionnaires like what color is my aura? That kind of thing. :) A lot of tracking comes from those "fun" things. I stay on facebook because all of my family live in other states of the US and that's how I keep up with a lot of them.
Those are the cutest 'bugs' I've ever seen! Those heart-shaped red spots, my gosh. We do (like your commenter above says) have what we call ladybugs and they are about that size, but they are orange with black spots (just plain black dots, definitely not beautiful red hearts). I'm so glad you went back.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking I should quit FB for all the reasons most thinking people are disenchanted with it but as you say, it is hard. I find the best birding places through a FB group that I'd never otherwise know about. And there are my great-grandchildren, who change so rapidly while we're away from Oregon. I like keeping up with them. (Except for their mother, most of the rest of my family are only very sporadic users if at all.)