I
informed the Derby Evening Telegraph of developments and following
a very eye-catching article, featuring a cartoon depicting me as an
A.R.P warden fending of hordes of giant ladybirds, members of the
public started to bring more specimens in to the Museum (and some
wrongly identified native ones, too). Most of these were from the
City centre area including, again, Darley Park, Duffield Road and
the Friargate area, with two specimens from Allestree to the far north
of the city and one from Mickleover in the far west. A further specimen,
brought in from Littleover, on 20th July, turned out to be an Eyed
Ladybird, our largest native species, even larger than the Harlequin.
This is a very unusual record as this spectacular species is usually
found on pine-covered heathland. During August further specimens of
the Harlequin turned up - along the Markeaton Brook in the City Centre
and from the city end of the Burton Road.
During September I visited
a garden near Five Lamps, thoroughly infested with them, again mainly
on lime trees. Together with further records from areas already
known to have them, there were specimens brought in from Rosehill
St. off Osmaston Road in the south of the City. I then heard that
the nearby Arboretum had been host to large numbers throughout the
summer. There was another single record from Birchover Way in Allestree,
only the second for that suburb. Alerted by a member of the public,
I found that the churchyard of Darley Abbey parish church was heavily
infested. Into October, and there were many seen on the trees around
the Silk Mill and Cathedral in central Derby. One specimen found
inside the Silk Mill and several in a house in Darley Abbey were
the fist indications that the insects were beginning to seek hibernation
sites.
Up to the end of October
no local records had been received from the County outside the Derby
City boundary in fact, none from Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire
at all. Inexplicably, Derby itself seemed to hold an isolated heavy
infestation of the invader, away from the south-east of England,
where, according to Peter Hardy the National Ladybird Survey Project
Officer at Monk's Wood (to whom all my records have been sent) it
appeared to be consolidating its hold. Its main area of colonisation
then ranged from Essex to the Isle of Wight, Central London being
especially heavily infested, with odd records from Devon and Worcestershire.
The local picture changed
on 5th November, with the weather still comparatively mild. Rather
strangely, while I was manning an exhibit I had put together on
the harlequin ladybird, at the Derbys and Notts Entomological Society's
Annual Show at Broomfield College, just to the north-east of Derby,
Paul Mabbott himself, who was visiting the event, collected some
specimens of the very same insect in the car park there! Together
with a single specimen captured in a house at Stanley, two miles
to the east, on the same day, these were the first local records
from beyond Derby. Later that week I had some adult specimens brought
in from a house in Chaddesden - the first I had received from that
suburb and, very interestingly, several larvae were brought in from
a garden near Kedleston Road in central Derby. The latter find illustrates,
that given mild weather, this species of ladybird continues to reproduce
much later through the year than our native species, another way
it gains advantage.
As the weather became
much colder later that month and during early December, records
dried up - though I was expecting lots of reports of hibernating
adults inside premises. In the event only a few came through to
me. Just before Christmas, however, when the weather warmed up again,
there were several active harlequins on the vegetation in Museum
Square, where I first collected specimens of the invader. They were
still there in mid January 2006. The very cold early spring of 2006 curtailed
Harlequin activity, but with the arrival of warmer weather they
have been popping out all over the place, including, at the end
of April 2006, one specimen in my garden in the far north of Allestree
and one in nearby Allestree Park - where they seemed to be absent
last year.
Harlequin
Identification
The pictures here will
help you identify Harmonia axyridis, but the insect is extremely
variable, so a list of defining characteristics will be helpful:
1. They are relatively
large (6-8 mms), the length of the
Seven-spot ladybird (our commonest native species), or slightly
longer.
2. Their bodies are distinctly rounded.
3. Their legs are brown (only partly in melanic specimens).
4. They may have 0-19 black spots on red or orange or two
or more red patches on black.
5. Their heads have a conspicuous white marking with a
small triangle in the center - which remains on the melanic specimens.
6. Their pronota have a lot of white, the side margins remain
on melanic specimens.
For further information
visit the National Harlequin Recording Website at
www.harlequin-survey.org
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