A Ladybug Colony in my Garden!

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I love ladybugs. I've loved them since I was a little girl and discovered them in the little trees planted in front of my house. I have ladybug kitchen towels and oven mitts. I even got a small ladybug tattoo on my ankle, and years later covered and replaced it with an even larger ladybug tattoo (this after the original one got badly burned as a side effect of laser hair removal - yes, it happens). 

It is then understandable that I was absolutely thrilled to discover a ladybug colony in my garden this summer. Thrilled to the point of spending a lot of time outside taking pictures of the small bugs, or just contemplating them. In my previous post, I already shared some pictures and described how helpful they were in getting rid of the aphids on my fava beans. But this was before the large colony established itself on an ornamental plant that it's just a tiny bit invasive, but which I let grow in order to attract bees and other insects. It turns out that this plant (a member of the daisy family that I haven't really taken the time to identify), was also a magnet for aphids. But no need to worry: in a matter of a few days the ladybugs had established themselves and were taking care of the problem. After they were ready and no aphids were left, they moved to another plant, and got rid of the aphids there. And after that most of them left, probably to search greener pastures.

One of the most fascinating things for me was to be able to observe the ladybug's life cycle: the clusters of yellow eggs, the "mini-monster-like" larvae, the pupae and the adult insects. I didn't want to let time pass without sharing some images of the different stages:

The eggs, conveniently laid close to a food source for the larvae - note the aphids.

A type of larva.

Next comes the pupa stage: the larva attaches itself to a leaf, and then starts its metamorphosis. 

The quality is unfortunately not the best, but this photo shows the skins left behind once the adult ladybugs emerged after a few days. 

This ladybug probably had recently emerged, as it still looked soft and the spots weren't fully showing.

And finally, the adult ladybugs. These are only a few of the dozens that were there.