Fly away home...

[ffutures]

Here's the best picture of last night's surprise visitor, after I moved it across to a flower pot to get it out of the way - none of the others were really clear enough, which reminds me that I really need to get a proper macro adaptor for this camera. I really have no idea which species this is, but I think it's pretty cute.

Comments

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

We've had a lot of those overwintering in our house. They seem to like it up in the corners of the windows, maybe because it gets the sun and its away from the cat.

May be a harlequin.

http://www.ladybird-survey.org/species_desc.aspx?species=6455%2059702

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[jeymien.livejournal.com]

Definitely a type of lady bug - probably chilocorinae - they can be black with red spots.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

The reverse/oddly coloured ladybugs are the evil important ones that will kill off the native ones. :(

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

You think?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Important? Imported!
Harlequin is likely, there's a list of patterns on this wikipedia page.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - the one in column 3 row 3 of the second picture looks a lot like my visitor. I haven't seen any others, wonder if there's a mass of them somewhere.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly, they tend to turn up in bulk. I took this photo end of March last year so yours might have been out a bit early. There were loads more hiding underneath the brambles I couldn't get into the shot, probably about 20 in total.

If there are more, it might be worth reporting them on the website linked in the comment above, although I think the London area is well covered already.