June, 2015 ~ For the past two months, whenever we’ve been home, I’ve spent about an hour a day wedged in between the stalks of giant “punting pole” bamboo, trying to catch a ladybug in the act of hatching. While I’ve seen it twice, and got passable pictures one of those times, what I really enjoyed was all the other life in the bamboo. I’ve learned a lot about ladybugs, a.k.a., ladybird beetles, which I’ll share in another post. The biggest surprise to me is that these ladybugs, which I believe are in the genus Chilocorus, start their lives as a pale pink and over the course or 3 to 4 hours, turn dark and develop their spots:
The ladybug larvae are squarish and spiky. The larger one that has turned more orange is about to split and turn into a pupa like the two teardrop shaped ones next to it. As they grow, the larvae shed several times before they pupate. You can see some of the shed skins next to the pupae:
Lots of lizards skittering around:
The snails are always out early in the morning:
My favorite critters so far are the lacewing larvae, a.k.a., trash bugs. They disguise themselves with whatever detritus is available. I really like this one which has gathered discarded ladybug larvae shells. These guys are a little bit larger than a pin head and are moving around pretty fast so I have had to take about a thousand photos to get a shot that shows the larva under its pile of “trash.”
This trashbug is carrying the shed skins of ladybug larvae
