Bah!
Juggling summertime and working and blogging is proving nearly impossible for me this year. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it has to do with the garden villains foiling my bean beds (rabbits! groundhogs!) and the bushels of zucchini overflowing our kitchen (why don’t the garden villains eat zucchini?). Anyway, I’m putting the rabbits and the groundhogs out of my head this morning so I can update you on the fabulousness that was last Saturday’s Searching for Lost Ladybugs program at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton, Massachusetts.
Longtime readers know that I have written a book on citizen science (coming from Henry Holt in spring 2012) that includes an introduction to the Lost Ladybug Project (LLP), and that this work has turned me into a devoted ladybug hunter. My kids and I conduct regular ladybug surveys around central Massachusetts, and last weekend we welcomed a handful of families into the uber-cool world of ladybugging.
It was insanely hot on Saturday, but eighteen stalwart spotters-to-be showed up anyway. After a brief overview of the ladybug life cycle and the mission of the LLP, we set out for the nearest milkweed meadow with sweep nets on our shoulders and clamshell collection boxes in our hands. In fifty minutes of searching, we found 23 ladybugs representing seven different species. In fact, we found more native species than invasive species, which is quite encouraging. (If you are interested, you can see our data here; look for the photos dated 07/17/2010.)
The highlight of the morning was the collection of a gorgeous ladybug pupa from the field. We put it in a collection box so that we could take a photograph later, but before we did, the adult ladybug emerged. A handful of us got to watch in awe as a brandy-new adult Cycloneda munda crawled out into the world! Check out Her Newness:
© Loree Griffin Burns
It is NOT too late to become a ladybugster yourself, so if any of the above interests you, get yourself over to the LLP website for tips on how to get started. And feel free to leave questions in the comments below.
Happy spotting!