Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Two-Spotted in Brooklyn

One more species of lady beetle spotted in Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the catalpa trees, whose big leaves are sticky with aphid honeydew. This is the Two-Spotted lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata). There were several of them, so there must have been a recent pupation. This species is native to North American and Europe, making it the first native species of lady beetle I’ve seen here in Brooklyn.Note that the pronotum has a similar M/W mark as the Multi-colored Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis) (see some examples here), but these bipunctata are not as large or round as that more common and invasive species.

The beetle below was in the same tree. It turns out to be A. bipunctata as well, only in a dark variation, as this beetle is subject to melanic polymorphism. Lady beetles are sometimes tricky.The Two-Spotted lady beetle seems to be in decline in North America, its range narrowing. According to the Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell, to whom I submitted these pictures, “Adalia bipunctata in Brooklyn is very exciting!” This is the third report of the species in NY state and the first for the black variation. Woo-woo!

UPDATE: Returned this morning and got a better shot of the dark morph:Probably a different individual. Hard as the dickens to shoot these glossy critters! Saw another of the dark forms at a separate catalpa tree, two piers away.

And this, another of the typical Two-Spotted, surrounded by the spent casings, or exuviae of the pupas — although those could be from other lady beetle species, since there are at least three species on these trees now:

mthew

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8 responses to “Two-Spotted in Brooklyn”

  1. Julie Feinstein

    Congratulations Matthew! That is exciting. I must have received a telepathic pulse because I was thinking about rare ladybugs yesterday and ended up writing a blog about them: http://www.urbanwildlifeguide.net. When I got to work this morning I had an email about yours from a ladybug enthusiast.

    I am also scouring Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Lost Ladybug Project! Let’s find a C-9 now! Julie 🙂

    Reply
    1. mthew

      Thanks, Julie. C-9 it is!

      Non-lady beetlers: check out Julie’s blog to learn more about “C-9,” the nine-spotted ladybug, Coccinella novemnotata, state insect of NY and now, sadly, incredibly rare.

      Reply
  2. Leslie Allee, Lost Ladybug Project

    Best of luck Matthew and Julie! You’re only 105 miles from Amagansett – it could happen. We found C-9 on flowers like cosmos and bachelors buttons, as well as chard, lambsquarters, string beans, carrot tops, portulaca, and cilantro plants at the Quail Hill Farm. Spotters in Colorado and South Dakota have found them on yucca flowers.
    Leslie

    Reply
  3. Life Cycles in Brooklyn Bridge Park « Backyard and Beyond

    […] rare Two-spotted lady beetles (Adalia bipunctata) I discovered in July are still active in Brooklyn Bridge Park. In fact:“Houston, we have coition.” Luckily, […]

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  4. Brooklyn’s Two-Spotted Continue | Backyard and Beyond

    […] Two years ago, I stumbled upon some unfamiliar ladybugs. There were Two-spotted (Adalia bipunctata), which turned out to be rather rare. It was the first Brooklyn report for the species. Last summer, the site was inaccessible to civilians because of construction. This weekend I took a look at the trees, as I usually do. They have been quite active with Multicolored Asian Ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis) for the last couple of weeks. But hello! Something different from the very round, very large (for a ladybug) H. axyridis, a nuisance species, if not worse, spread by gardeners and garden-suppliers. Indeed, many think the spread of these beetles has been the cause, or one of the causes, of the decline of the likes of A. bipunctata and other now rare native species. But the Two-spotted is still in town. While trying to get a live photo, the beetle flew down to my camera lens, so I snapped this pic with my phone. […]

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  5. More Two-Spotted Ladybugs | Backyard and Beyond

    […] For my first discovery of these rare beetles two years ago on these trees, see here. […]

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    […] third report of Two-Spotted Ladybugs in New York State was right here in […]

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  7. More Insects | Backyard and Beyond

    […] photo, but on 6/2 I spotted a Two-spotted Ladybug in the same Brooklyn Bridge Park patch I first found them in in 2012. I also wrote about them for Humans & […]

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