At breakfast today, the server produced a bug in a jar that she thought I might be able to identify through this forum. It was bright gold in color and actually glistened is the light. I told her I would try and started to eat my breakfast. After a while someone picked the jar and said, it's a lady bug. We looked and it was sure enough a lady bug....Orange with black spots, but a little smaller than most lady bugs. Do lady bugs change color? or is this some other kind of bug? Please?
Over 450 species of Coccinellidae (Lady Bug, Lady Beetle) are native to the US, they are commonly yellow, orange or scarlet. Not counting many other species of beetles that are mistaken for Lady Bugs that are also those colors. I don't know if red is the most common color or just the one that artists and photographers have preferred over the years. Do a google search for Coccinellidae to see if yours is the same shape.
Thank you. I searched it and found that there is a golden variety of ladybug, so I guess that is what it is....
Simply have to LOVE the ladybug, are one excellant aphid controller in any garden. They congregate for the winter in garden debry or in amongst any gravel in one (to conserve body heat), make their appearance in early spring to seek food, followed by a mate, then begin their egg-laying process. She will seek out a site where her offspring will have ample food to sustain them. Their offspring, when they hatch out, look like miniature worm-like alligators and it's these "teenage" larva that can devour up to 200 aphids per day or nearly 5,000 in their lifetime, which, for the adults, is two years. (Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to actually FIND a lady bug larva feeding on aphids in a rolled up leaf of a choke cherry tree when checking it! Carefully let the leaf reroll itself, let the larva "feed on" as the leaf/tree was full of aphids..and didn't want those!) It's said "seeing a lady bug brings good luck, but killing one brings misfortune" so DO honor the insect and be glad to have them around!
