Monday, 21 January 2008

Ladybug (Ladybird) on Grass Stem

Ladybug (Ladybird) on Grass Stempicture of a ladybug - (ladybird) photo - the insect close up
Finding a name for this creature was difficult. According to my searches, it is called a Ladybug in the US, but predominantly a Ladybird in the UK and Australia. So I've chosen a compromise here, and called it both! :)

Here is an old nursery rhyme we have here in Australia about the Ladybird - can anyone tell me if this is popular in the US too?
Ladybird ladybird fly away home,
Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that's little Ann,
For she crept under the frying pan.
This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/124, F4.0, ISO 100
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 January 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Marienkaefer in German ;)

    Sweet shot!
    Love these lucky bugs :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tom Arbour21 January 2008 at 11:38 pm

    Hi David,

    The colloquial name here in the U.S. is definitely "Ladybug", but since this insect is not a true bug but rather a beetle, us naturalists call them "Ladybird Beetles" now in the U.S. as well. Nice capture. Do you know if that is a native species? Here in the U.S. we have large infestations of the Asian lady bird beetle, Harmonia axyridis. These insects like to congregate in the hundreds and thousands and come into houses during the winter. They can really be pests. Our native species are more colorful and really well behaved, however.

    Nice shot david! I really like the composition...how you placed the insect at the top left intersecting third of the photo. Very nice.

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
  3. NYCindividual22 January 2008 at 5:10 am

    Great shot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown22 January 2008 at 8:40 pm

    Hi Nicole,

    Thanks for the translation! I used to learn some German, but I never learned this. Does that translate as Ladybug, or Ladybird? :)

    Cheers,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown22 January 2008 at 8:43 pm

    Hi Tom,

    Thanks a lot for the info. It seems to align well with what I've got from Google Trends.

    I'm not sure whether this is a native or not, but as far as I know there aren't any native ladbirds in Australia. They seem to be pretty rare here actually. They certainly aren't a pest, as they help defeat the aphids which we do have a lot of!

    Cheers,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  6. myonlyphoto23 January 2008 at 4:58 am

    David really cool photo you took. I have to tell you I never seen one looking like that, we usually have one with dots on the red wings, but this one has different spots. So cool though, thanks for sharing. Anna :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown23 January 2008 at 9:13 am

    Hi Anna,

    Sounds like the typical ladybird you see in real life is the one we see in pictures. I'd like to see that red and black one though.

    Cheers,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  8. myonlyphoto23 January 2008 at 10:25 am

    David, we call them ladybugs here. I have to tell you that we don't have many in our area anymore, we got invaded by the Asian ladybugs that are more orange and have some how symmetrical distribution of dots, plus they bite and release this crazy yellow juice. This was due to idea, that instead of pesticides to kill some other bug (don't remember what it was), they released that Asian strand of ladybug to eat them, guess what they ate those bugs and on top of that they also mulitiplied like crazy. Sometimes during the sunny day I can see them in clouds on our backyard, and then when it gets colder they all crawl into the house. So this is the story, however, the crazy cold weather is slowly wiping them out. Thanks for the post again, finally I was able to tell someone this strange story, lol. Anna :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unknown23 January 2008 at 12:10 pm

    Hi Anna,

    Thanks. Your experience sounds very similar to Tom's - seems like America is being invaded by Asian Ladybirds (or bugs or beetles!;) I think we have some of that type here during Summer usually, but I haven't seen any this year. We certainly don't get as many as you do.

    Cheers,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nature Nut /JJ Loch28 January 2008 at 1:53 am

    Lady Bugs!!! I still find them in the house during the winter. They flock in during the fall and cover the ceilings when the door opens. But they are beautiful and a favorite of mine. They help out in garden by eating aphids.

    Love the photo!!!

    Hugs, JJ

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unknown28 January 2008 at 9:53 am

    Hi JJ,

    Sounds like our flies in Australia! At night time they congregate on the ceiling and shutters - wherever they can find a flat space. Aphids are also a problem, and for this reason we like Ladybirds here too.

    As a matter of fact, I found a whole group of these insects on some pumpkin leaves the other day. Maybe I'll get some pictures on this blog soon....

    Cheers,

    David Webb: Photographer

    ReplyDelete
  12. DigitalShutterMania28 January 2008 at 10:53 am

    David, Lovely lady bug shot. Anyway it's the same name as "BEETLE", isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Unknown10 May 2008 at 3:35 am

    And yes, I learned that rhyme as a very young child. Lovely pic.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Unknown10 May 2008 at 8:45 pm

    Hi DigitalShutterMania,

    I think I explained this in email, so I won't go into detail here. :)

    Cheers,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  15. Unknown10 May 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Hi karan,

    That's interesting to hear that you learned it too. Great to hear feedback from others, thanks for your comment.

    Cheers,

    David

    p.s. bug *isn't* the same as beetle for those who are interested! google it. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting. I will try to reply to every comment, so if you want to view the response you can come back to this post later. If you have a blogger account, you can also tick the "Email follow-up comments to....." box to have the reply emailed to you.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Related Posts