In the last three years that I have been looking for ladybirds I have learnt that the best places to find them are on gravestones in winter and in small Scots pine trees in the rest of the year. Some ladybirds are generalists - found in many different habitats - but others are conifer specialists and Scots pine seems to be most favoured. I have often noticed a group of small self-seeded pines close to the A189 north of Cramlington as I have driven past and I eventually got round to visiting them a few days ago. It's a pretty unprepossessing spot inside a large traffic interchange and apart from the pines it mostly scrub and litter. But the trees are what attract the ladybirds and they don't mind the surroundings. This is the habitat,
and this is an aerial view.
It was immediately apparent that there were ladybirds everywhere. Every branch of every tree seemed to have a 7-spot Ladybird and there were Pine Ladybirds on almost every tree. Altogether I found 10 species in a place with no previous records (because no-one had looked). There were lots of great pine aphids as well which is presumably why the ladybirds were there.
The species I found were:
Pine Ladybird. Despite the name it is found in many habitats.
Adonis Ladybird. Another one that seems to turn up anywhere.
Larch Ladybird. Mostly a conifer specialist.
2-spot Ladybird. A generalist.
10-spot Ladybird. Often in deciduous trees but can turn up anywhere. I found two colour forms - decempunctata and decempustulata.
Harlequin Ladybird. Also common and widespread but I found only two.
Eyed Ladybird. Our largest species and another conifer specialist. A real beauty.
Striped Ladybird. Perhaps the prettiest of all and mostly found in or close to Scots pine. Usually hard to find but this was the most I have seen in one place.
Pine scymnus. Really tiny (<2mm) and the only micro ladybird I found.
It was absorbing to find so many species in one small spot. I expect it will be worth another visit in a few weeks time when there will be larvae to look for as well.
