If you would like to get involved, more information about the project, plus tips on scouting, photographing beetles, and quite a bit more, is available […]
In a September 18th, 2008 Agricultural Research Service (ARS) news posting titled “ARS Scientists and Cooperators Surveying for Rare Ladybugs” we have learned that a few once-common ladybug species are no longer being found in the numbers reported just twenty years ago. Here’s a section quoted directly from the article:
These beetles were common 20 years ago, but have become harder to find in the past few decades. There are more than 400 ladybug species native to North America, but some have become extremely rare, displaced perhaps by development, pesticides, non-native *species and other factors. *See our footnote for added information. — Don Comis, ARS Public Affairs Specialist
To discover the extent of the impact an interesting “citizen research project” has been developed.
The Players and the Plan
ARS researchers at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and South Dakota State University (Brookings, SD) are seeking the public’s help — the reason for our passing this along: They want people to photograph as many different ladybug species as they can find and to send the the photos to the folks at Cornell. They plan to inventory them. This dependent method, if the shutterbugs out there respond cooperatively, could provide very telling data.
Of particular interest, especially to Louis Hesler, an entomologist at ARS North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, are the nine-spotted (Coccinella novemnotata), two-spotted (Adalia bipunctata), and transverse (Coccinella transversalis) beetle species. These species are beneficial to farmers as biological control agents and have significant economic importance.
You Can Get Involved
Those behind this project are encouraging students sharing in interest in entomology or agricultural sciences to get involved, but with any “citizen project” we’ll suggest a much broader scope of participation. Within reason, the more data — the photos and any observations — the better. If you would like to get involved, more information about the project, plus tips on scouting, photographing beetles, and quite a bit more, is available at The Lost Ladybug Project website/blog. There you can also upload your photos.
Footnote: By “non-native species” we do have to wonder if the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-introduced multicolored Asian ladybeetle, Harmonia axyridis, is among the culprit factors.
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: September 29th, 2008 at 12:02 am →
Thanks goes to Alison of Sound Horticulture for this news tip.