Everything About Ladybugs!

A visitor to our website and fellow ladybug lover, Kathy G, was kind enough to contribute a photo of this striking ladybug species she found crawling around in San Jose, Costa Rica.

She described this ladybug as having two large black spots an a whitish, translucent body. This ladybug is almost crystal-like in appearance. The shot is somewhat blurry as she was trying out a new camera. We were however able to get some assistance from our good friends over at the Lost Ladybug Project to help us identify it.

The ladybug species is called Azya orbigera. They are native to Mexico and have been introduced to places such as Hawaii and other areas of North America for pest control. In Hawaii these ladybugs are one of the main natural predators of  green scale. The green scale attacks the plumeria, a very important flower and ornamental crop in Hawaii.

Below is another picture of this remarkable ladybug species. These little critters have also been spotted in Florida and areas of Central America.

Photo by Carla Kishinami @ Flickr

If you enjoy photographic nature and would like to share your ladybug photos with us, we would love to have them on our website. Head over to our ladybug photo contributor form and submit your photos. We look forward to hearing from you.