Ladybugs

Ladybugs all dressed in red

Strolling through the flowerbed.

If I were tiny just like you

I'd creep among the flowers too!
-Maria Fleming

I think ladybugs are every kids' favorite bugs. At least, ladybugs have been the first bugs allowed to crawl on the hands of my 4 kids, and they continue to be fascinated with them. So when we came across 3 different species this week, we gave ourselves a challenge - to identify them! Not an easy task - look here to get an idea of just how many different species there are.

Our first find was in our backyard: the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Our second find was on a family hike: the Giant Lady Beetle

Our third find was on a walking path near our house: the Convergent Lady Beetle. Unlike the other two, we were able to observe TONS of these ladybugs in various stages.

Convergent Lady Beetle - larvae and adult. How many larvae/adults can you find in this picture? Many of the weeds lining the path were covered with adults and larvae.

I also think this fellow is in the beginnings of the Pupa stage - he was fixed to the weed, not moving or eating like many of the others, and bigger-fuller looking.

This was a fun supplement to our science lesson this week on Insect Metamorphosis - much better than the worksheet that came with the lesson which I skipped or even the beautiful pictures in our Animal Encyclopedia.

More Ladybug info here, including life cycle.