The Flickr Cochinella Image Generatr

NO PHOTOSHOP.

Harmonia axyridis is a large coccinellid beetle. Its colour ranges from yellow-orange to black, and the number of spots between none and 22. It is native to eastern Asia, but has been artificially introduced to North America and Europe to control aphids and scale insects. It is now common, well known, and spreading in those regions, and has also established in South Africa and widely across South America.

It is commonly known as the harlequin ladybird (because it occurs in numerous colour forms). It is also known in North America as the multicolored Asian lady beetle, and (because it invades homes in October in preparation for overwintering) as Halloween lady beetle. In Japan, it is not generally distinguished from the seven-spot ladybird which is also common there.

When the species first arrived in the UK, it was labelled in jest as "the many-named ladybird", because among the names listed were: multivariate, southern, Japanese, and pumpkin ladybird.

Los Angeles. California.

ICM intentional camera movement

Three years ago I posted a photo of this flower still in bud (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/45799333455/in/photoli...). The darkness of January is today upon us as it was then but this photo shows the flowers more fully. Something of a gift on this first day of the opening of the Hortus after our strict lockdown.
Since 2019 I've learned a bit more about the history of our plant and its first describers. On the basis of their scientific description in 1914, I gathered it had been collected in July 1910 by Perrier de la Bâthie himself; but possibly those words are by Raymond-Hamet, Perrier's co-author. Another source says it had been sent to Perrier by the collector-duo Madame and Monsieur Daigremont; and thus it was named for them.
Joseph Marie Henry Alfred Perrrier de la Bâthie (1873-1958) was indeed an intrepid plant collector himself. He'd made his way to Madagascar in the wake of France's annexation of that island in 1896 (after the long Franco-Hova colonial wars since 1883). Initially he was a geologist ( in search of gold). Later he became an adviser to the colonial authorities about anything to do with nature. He is today known as a naturalist and also a conservationist, But much as he loved nature, he attempted to set it to colonial standards. He went so far as to introduce an insect, a cochinella, Dactylopius sp., to southern Madagascar in 1923 to eradicate Opuntia raketa (Prickly Pear) that made colonial farming difficult. The native population, though, needed that plant as fodder for their cattle. The plant gone, a terrible famine ensued killing half of the indigenous people of the area.
It's a chilling history described in detail by Karen Middleton, 'Who killed Malagasy Cactus?', Ethnohistory 25 (1999), 215-248.

A 24-spot Ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata)

Day 23. They still think I am dewdrop. Must present some form of daltonism...

NO PHOTOSHOP.

Harmonia axyridis is a large coccinellid beetle. Its colour ranges from yellow-orange to black, and the number of spots between none and 22. It is native to eastern Asia, but has been artificially introduced to North America and Europe to control aphids and scale insects. It is now common, well known, and spreading in those regions, and has also established in South Africa and widely across South America.

It is commonly known as the harlequin ladybird (because it occurs in numerous colour forms). It is also known in North America as the multicolored Asian lady beetle, and (because it invades homes in October in preparation for overwintering) as Halloween lady beetle. In Japan, it is not generally distinguished from the seven-spot ladybird which is also common there.

When the species first arrived in the UK, it was labelled in jest as "the many-named ladybird", because among the names listed were: multivariate, southern, Japanese, and pumpkin ladybird.

Los Angeles. California.

Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Polyphaga
Cucujiformia
Cucujoidea
Coccinellidae
Cochinella septempunctata.
En algunos lugares muy apreciada por los agricultores por su voracidad sobre pulgones y otras especies que atacan los cultivos. Se utiliza por tanto como controlador de plagas e insecticida natural

Harmonia axyridis is a large coccinellid beetle. Its colour ranges from yellow-orange to black, and the number of spots between none and 22. It is native to eastern Asia, but has been artificially introduced to North America and Europe to control aphids and scale insects. It is now common, well known, and spreading in those regions, and has also established in South Africa and widely across South America.

It is commonly known as the harlequin ladybird (because it occurs in numerous colour forms). It is also known in North America as the multicolored Asian lady beetle, and (because it invades homes in October in preparation for overwintering) as Halloween lady beetle. In Japan, it is not generally distinguished from the seven-spot ladybird which is also common there.

When the species first arrived in the UK, it was labelled in jest as "the many-named ladybird", because among the names listed were: multivariate, southern, Japanese, and pumpkin ladybird.

Los Angeles. California.

Theme for 52 of 2012 week 12 is "I spy with my little eye something beginning with L"

Gracias Maos76 por regalarme el anillo para invertir el objetivo OM 35mm 1:2,8 que me has prestado. Parece que si que sirve para hacer macro! pero lo siento! me va a costar devolvertelo!