Mid-summer insect - ladybird
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Seven-spot ladybirds enjoying creeping thistle sap.
In summer you can find the larvae of ladybirds everywhere where there are aphids. Sometimes the blue-gray creatures slip indoors with a big bunch of flowers, sometimes berry-pickers come across them near a particularly big aphid colony. The dark body of the larva has some faintly orange spots creating something like a photonegative image of the future ladybird, only the larva isn’t round but elongated. Our best-known species – the seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) – lays its eggs where the food is, that is near aphid colonies, when warm weather arrives. Ladybirds may produce two generations in a summer.
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