Double trouble

It seems to have been an especially good year in our garden for 22-spot ladybirds: a single tap on a small section of one of the honeysuckles this afternoon dislodged four into my net. I carefully replaced them, one at a time, on a leaf where I could easily photograph them for my records. The first two scuttled rapidly over the edge and away, but this pair stayed around for a while, looking for food I guess, and allowed me to get what R says reminds him of one of those full face and profile double portraits.

I've said it before, I know, but I think it bears stressing: these guys are tiny, at just 3-4mm in length. When they're swept or beaten from vegetation they draw in all their legs under their wing cases, and tuck in their head and pronotum as well, and then essentially play dead for a minute or so. During this time they'll roll around the bottom of the net like little seeds, and unless they happen to land spot-side up it's easy to overlook them. I wait until they're moving around again before offering them a leaf or stem to climb onto, because it wouldn't be safe to simply place them on some vegetation - they're so light that if they weren't using their claws to anchor themselves the tiniest gust of wind would blow them away.

22-spot ladybirds eat moulds and mildew, and can be found on a wide range of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Experience tells me that our honeysuckles, which are prone to mildew, are the likeliest places for me to find them, but I've also seen them in other parts of the garden. They overwinter low down, in tangled vegetation or leaf litter, but will stay active through mild spells.