LADYBUGS OF ALBERTA
by John Acorn
University of Alberta Press, 2007
I had hoped to go on a ladybug expedition over the weekend, to share my new-found ladybug knowledge with my kids, and also to psyche myself up for my first week of drafting the citizen science book. Alas, it rained. And rained and rained and rained. It is raining now, even as I type.
And so I did the next best thing: I read about ladybugs.
John Acorn’s LADYBUGS OF ALBERTA is the only regional ladybug field guide in existence. It covers many of the species we have here in the northeastern United States–even though the Alberta in the title refers to Alberta, Canada–and it is the guide that my friends at The Lost Ladybug Project use in the field. And here’s the thing: it’s a great read! Seriously. I’m not one to actually sit and read a field guide, even in a deluge that has kept me indoors for days. But this particular field guide was a pleasure to read … cover to cover.
John Acorn has a wonderful, humorous writing style, and he is a true ladybugster (his term for ladybug enthusiasts). Who but a ladybugster would actually taste his subjects in order to determine which ones are least palatable?
This is not nearly as weird as it sounds … If there were any diseases or parasites I could catch, I wouldn’t do it, believe me.
And yet, do it he does:
The procedure is simple: I place the ladybug on my tongue, press them gently against the roof of my mouth, remove them unharmed, and swirl the saliva around my mouth. I then take notes.
Now that is dedication.
Here’s to sunshine and to ladybugs and to dedication … I would like to see all of them here at the Burns house over the coming months!