Ladybirds in Hitchin Cemetery
Ladybirds in Hitchin Cemetery Everyone likes a ladybird and we become familiar with them from an early age with Ladybird books being part of a lot of people's early years. The usual image of ladybirds is bright orangey-red with black polka dots. When we come across one they are generally happy to walk across your finger and allow close views and l adybirds and are regarded as gardener's friends as they eat aphids, what's not to like? Ladybirds are all over the cemetery and here are some lovely 7-Spot Ladybirds on my hand. There are actually around 50 species of ladybird in the UK and half are comparatively larger and "conspicuous" and the others are "inconspicuous", being really tiny. One species which quite a few people have heard of is the Harlequin Ladybird, this is an invasive species from Asia first spotted in England in 2004 and is now over the whole of the UK. Harlequins are vigorous feeders and out-compete our native species, especially the 2...