northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here are a couple of Seven-spotted Lady Beetles from last spring. They can be identified by their 2 (relatively) large white spots on their heads. You might think it would be easier to identify them by their 7 spots, which these 2 individuals have. Unfortunately spots on these types of beetles tends to vary. The Seven-spotted Lady Beetle usually has 7 spots but can have as many as 9 spots and as few as zero spots. I grew up calling these ladybugs while in Britain they're called ladybirds. Neither of these names are great since they are neither birds or true bugs [1]. They are a type of beetle though, so using the "lady beetle" terminology is better. (Admittedly the "lady" part of the name is still inaccurate for the males of the population, though that's an inaccuracy for another time.) June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300990664, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300989540, (c)...

These are almost certainly invasive  Oleander Aphids (aka Milkweed Aphids) meeting their worst nightmare, a ladybug . Our milkweeds are hosts for lots of native insects (Monarch Butterflies being the most famous), but these non-native aphids not only crowd out the natives but also seem to do more damage to the milkweeds. Fortunately for us, ladybugs in particular consider aphids to be delicious. (Although I think ladybugs can eat a lot of aphids, it looks like this milkweed has more aphids than this ladybug will be able to eat.) There are a lot of similar-looking ladybugs; this one might be yet another non-native species, the Seven-spotted Ladybug . It sounds like they were intentionally introduced to the US specifically to control plant-eating insects, though as they out-compete native insects it's unclear whether they're more of a benefit or a problem.