Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.
All except one,
And that's little Ann,
For she crept under
The frying pan.
Britain, c.1744
In Medieval England farmers would set torches to the old hop (used in
flavoring beer) vines after the harvest in order to clear the fields
for the next planting. This poem was sung as a warning to the ladybugs
that were still crawling on the vines in search of aphids. The
ladybugs' children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the
pupae, referred to as "Nan" in some versions, were fastened to the
plants and thus could not escape.
From: Copyright © 2004 Sharon Birnbaum About Ladybugs
LADYBUG FACTS
Convergent Ladybugs, properly know as lady beetles, feed on aphids in the Colorado plains in the spring and summer, making them very popular with farmers and gardeners. In the fall, when there are no longer enough aphids to feed on, they migrate to the mountains by the millions and go into a condition called 'diapause', where they stop reproduction and slow their metabolism. There are more than 80 species of ladybugs in Colorado, but the convergent ladybug is the only one that 'heads for the hills' in the fall, where they burrow under leaves, and find hiding places in logs and such places to spend the winter. In the spring, they return to the lowlands and the cycle begins again. This year, a more than average abundance of ladybugs have been noted in Colorado and other states.
The proper name for ladybugs is ladybeetle, or, in Latin, coccinellid.
A ladybeetle's life span is one year.
A ladybeetle larvae can eat 150 aphids a day. Adults eat up to 50.
Photos taken in Mueller State Park, Colorado September 27, 2009
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