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Seven-dot ladybirds emerging from lichen in spring

 

All ladybirds hibernate as full-grown beetles. Already in the last heat wave some of them appeared from their hiding places. They may spend the winter together as a group between the boards of a window frame, or a few individuals together in a decayed tree stump or branch, but in fact the ladybirds can hide for winter in rather unexpected places.

 

For the imagos that have woken up fasting reigns. ”Batteries” are charged basking in the sunshine, at night they shelter in some nearby bark crevice. In South Estonia the colt’s-foot flowers but the real nectar feast begins only with the flowering of willows, and ladybirds, honey bees, bumblebees, butterflies, flies and other small and large bugs alike wait for this period.

 

About fifty ladybird species live in Estonia – the best known is the seven-dot ladybird and the common five-dot ladybird, the two-dot ladybug is encountered less often. The number of dots makes it possible to determine the species, ladybirds don't grow more dots with age.