Ladybird/bug ID - Updated!

[mallt]

Most of us know that ladybirds/bugs are good for the garden. Most of us would recognise an adult with no problem.

However if you want to be sure that you aren't mistakenly killing off the youngsters you need to know what they look like... & in the larva stage they are kinda creepy!
They go from pretty small guys like this:


& gradually increase in size, shedding outta skins as they do so...


until they are close to becoming a pupae... this one's probably pretty close:



Then they go through a pupae stage:



I think this one was still in the process of becoming a pupae because as I moved the plant, the angle of the pupae changed... plus it's very light in colour:


I don't have any pictures of newly hatched adults but they don't have spots at first... once their outer shell hardens the spots appear.

UPDATE = New pictures

While out building the green house I spotted a newly hatched adult:

You can just see where some of the spots are going to be! :)

An hour or so later the spots are much clearer:


And here you can see what's left of the pupea case a bit better:

Comments

[wee-megan.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[oblivions.livejournal.com]

in terms of scale, how big the larva?

[mallt.livejournal.com]

See my latest post!