Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Ode to beneficial insects



Ladybird,


ladybird,


stay where you are.*


The blackfly


are breeding,


I need your


larva


to chomp


and to chew


and remove from the scene,


the pestilent suckers


that spoil


my broad beans.

I have never seen this many different
spot combinations before.
One of them, not pictured
was entirely black.

Further rhyme variants.

See also

and of course this one
for all you ever wanted to know about
Coccinellidae

if you'd like to join in with a survey of
Harlequin ladybird sightings.


* Although if you are a Harlequin
you are not really very welcome 
as you out-compete and predate our native species.

2 comments:

  1. Looks like you have good help in your garden ... colorful, too.

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  2. I found what I thought was a Harlequin last year and got speedy confirmation that it WAS. Not impressed, but what can you do? I do love to see a ladybird............ So far we still seem to have plenty of our native ones here too, thank goodness.

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