An Aussie ladybird

A new ladybird for me, this is a native of Australia but was found in ivy in my mother's garden in Northamptonshire.  Rhyzobius forestieri eats scale insects and because of this has been introduced to various parts of the world as a biological control agent, notably to California in the 1890s and to Mediterranean countries in the 1980s to control scale insects on olive trees.  It was first reported in England in the garden of the Natural History Museum, presumably because there was someone there who could recognise it, and has since spread out across the South East and Midlands and has been added to the list of established British ladybirds.

Rhyzobius forestieri is small and black and covered in wavy white hairs.  The abdomen underneath is orange and this one obligingly rolled over for a photo of its tummy.