Spotted

I hadn't realised, until I looked it up for this picture, how complicated the subject of ladybirds and spots can get. Fairly obviously this is a seven-spot ladybird, the commonest native species. I knew there are other species with different numbers of spots, and I knew there is an invasive species called the 'harlequin ladybird' that appears in a kaleidoscope of forms and colours. We are not supposed to love the harlequins, but they are well established, so we might as well get along; they love over-wintering in our window frames and, if we open the window on a warm winter's day, we have to eject them from the room! But that's only the half of it. Here's a quick run-down... 

There's a two-spot species, that looks very like this one (with less spots!) There is a 'pine ladybird' that is black, with four red spots. There is a 'fourteen-spot' ladybird, that is yellow, with black spots (they are rectangular spots, and they might have as few as four, but hey...) There is an 'orange ladybird' that is indeed orange, with anything from twelve to sixteen white spots. But then there is a 'cream-spot ladybird' that is also orange, with fourteen white (OK, cream) spots. There is an 'eyed ladybird' that is red with fifteen or eighteen (but never sixteen or seventeen!) black spots with rims around them, like eyes. Topping them all is a 'twenty-two spot ladybird' that is bright yellow with, yes, twenty-two black spots

These are just the 'common' ones - I don't think I've seen any of them except the seven and three spot. The Woodland Trust says Britain has twenty-six ladybird species. I think there should be a blip category to assemble them all. When we have got the lot, we have enough for a set of dominoes

Yes, I'm still shuffling round the garden taking bug pictures, coughing a bit and feeling sorry for myself. I'm not in Belgium ironing my rumpled suit for a smart wedding. So be it. Our friends will take our love and hugs to the happy couple and we will enjoy the pictures