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:
Backyard and Beyond 
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