Harlequin Ladybird Larva

Yet another lovely morning at the Butterfly House and with 175 visitors it was busier than expected. Rain was forecast but thankfully it didn’t arrive until after we closed. And with the Liverpool victory parade in Liverpool we thought it would be very quiet.

It’s always great to see the joy on our visitors faces as they amble through the space and it still amazes me as to how many of them are first time visitors.

I spent a bit of time in the community garden and there were quite a few kids enjoying the spiral maze in the grass. There aren’t too many flowers in bloom at the moment and the wisteria is all but over after the strong wind and rain of the past couple of days.

This little fellow I believe is a harlequin ladybird larva, and there were quite a few of them around on various plants. Hopefully they will keep the aphids away but it’s such a shame that they are a risk to our native ladybird population by out competing them for food and potentially predating them too.