Never realised that Ladybirds "mature"!

[Nod]

By which I mean that the adults emerge as plain dark pinky orange beetles then darken off over the next few hours. The (poor!) shots below show a freshly emerged adult, having just pumped up its wings, the empty pupa and the adult about 90 minutes later.







ETA... Hopefully it'll still be there tomorrow morning (I'll be up at crack of sparrow f@rt!) so I can get a shot of it fully spotted up!

 

[Gav.]

Nice set, thanks for sharing

 

[Nod]

Posted more as a talking point than a set of photos but thanks anyway!

 

[Gav.]

I didn't know what to say, but is nice to see, I've not had the chance to see or capure anything like it yet, it'll be good if it's still there for the final stage

 

[Nod]

Fingers crossed!

 

[Nod]

Went out to see if it was still there at 06:00 but it had gone.

 

[swanseamale47]

You learn something every day.

 

[Norkie]

It'll be interesting to see if they' grow' more spots, or are they set at the hatching stage?

 

[Nod]

Once the spots have developed, I think the pattern and number are fixed, hence 7 Spot Ladybird etc..

Ladybirds guide

The FSC Ladybirds fold-out guide covers adults of 26 species found in Britain and Ireland. Beautiful colour paintings show the colours and patterns to spot.

www.field-studies-council.org