December Bugs

I added 211 new species to my iNaturalist tally this year, even if I can’t be quite sure of species-level ID in every case. Above are two of them: a scale insect that may be Oystershell Scale/Lepidosaphes ulmi and one of their predators, a Chilocorus genus twice-stabbed lady beetle.

Ah, but which one? iNat’s robot ID fails in the case of all the black ladybugs with red spots. It suggests Chilocorus stigma for them all, which is plainly wrong, not least because they also include the Hyperaspis genus sigil lady beetles under this umbrella. Based on several characteristics, I think this is Kuwana’s Lady Beetle, Chilocorus kuwanae, an introduced species, but so far nobody has agreed or disagreed with me.

The crazy thing? I saw this ladybug on December 2nd. On the next tree over, another unexpected insect for this time of year:

A 5mm long (not including snout…) weevil heading up the bole. The trees afflicted with all this scale are Trembling Aspen/Populus tremuloides, which was a clue to my ID. I believe this is one of the Willow Weevils, genus Dorytomus, some of whom are known to feed on Populus catkins.