A Loveliness of H. axyridis

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle
Not my photo

Last week, I experienced two lovelinesses. On Wednesday and Thursday, it suddenly got warmer and hit 70°F (21°C) late in the afternoon with a bright and low sun. There were lady beetles everywhere in the air flying about randomly. They would bump into my head and get stuck in my hair. Animals in my hair make me nuts, so I stayed inside, even when Jody came to collect the malaise trap and insect collections from the summer. Lovelinesses are not lovely. 

Lady beetles congregate during these times in the fall in order to find a warm place for the winter. And those warm places, especially for Harmonia axyridis (the invasive Asian Lady beetle),  are our houses. 

I did compromise with Lucy, though, and sat inside the garage while she made her rounds in the woods, barn, and fields. And there they were, a whole bunch of little H. axyridis just milling about on the floor. So I began shooting. I found three wing patterns, a squished one from under the automatic doors, and one flew so I saw its abdomen. You won't see the third pattern here because I seldom shoot dead animals unless necessary for identification. 

In the above series, you can see the beetle
grooming her wings so that
they fold neatly under her elytra.

Another wing pattern that I photographed.
It is the same species.

It is said that we can all identify H. axyridis by the W on their thorax below their head. That's not entirely true, but with that field mark to begin with, and with enough experience, you can generally figure out which lady beetles are the "bad guys." The field marks that you cannot use for identification are pattern and color. In the popular public domain poster below, you can see that H. axyridis comes in many different colors and patterns. Entomologists are pretty sure that there are many more.

Harmonia axyridis

When we remodeled our kitchen down to the studs, we found nests of H. axyridis numbering in the thousands in the walls. They are infamous in northern Vermont for their plague-like behavior: coming out of your walls and covering your windows when the sun is strong and retreating when it is cold again.

They smell, they bite, and your dogs and cats will not eat one after their first taste. Except for Lucy, bless her. She seems to love them. 

I spend some time each year reading odds and ends about H. axyridis. This year, I didn't learn anything new about them. I learned something about our culture and lady beetles in general. Both Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms wrote popular songs about them. I found both and can't decide which I like best.  They are popular with children's choirs in Europe, especially in the spring. The lyrics for both are the same—an old folk tale:

Ladybird, sit

 on my hand -

 I will do you no harm.

 No harm shall come to you;

 I only wish to see your colorful wings:

 your colorful wings are my joy.

 

 Ladybird, fly away,

 your house is burning, your children are crying

 so much, so much.

 The evil spider is spinning her web around them;

 Ladybird, fly home,

 your children are crying so.

 

 Ladybird, fly

  to the neighbor's children,

 They will do you no harm.

 No harm will come to you:

 they only wish to see your colorful wings,

 and greet them both for me.

The links to the songs:

Marienwürmchen (R. Schumann)

Marienwürmchen (J. Brahms)

The page that those links are on has wonderful 

information on the folklore and music.

🐞 May your loveliness be non-invasive. 🐞

_/\_/\_