The Lost Ladybug Project: Help Scientists Save Disappearing Ladybugs
October 2, 2008 · Print This Article
First it was bees, which are important to the balance of the environment in so many ways – especially pollination. Now, populations of ladybugs around the world are inexplicably disappearing, and these once-ubiquitous little beetles also perform an important service in the natural world: controlling the population of harmful crop-destroying insects. After noting a sudden, startling drop-off in the numbers of ladybugs in the Northeast, scientists have launched a nationwide project in the hopes of discovering the cause of this disquieting development.
From MSNBC:
“We don’t know why this happened, what impact it will have on controlling pests or how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare,” said John Losey, a Cornell University entomologist who leads the Lost Ladybug Project.
Funded by a $2 million National Science Foundation grant, the project is recruiting citizen scientists, particularly children, to search for C-9 and other ladybug species and send photos of them to Cornell for identification and inclusion in a database.
“The scientific end of our project is, there are so many ladybugs, so many places to look for them and not very many entomologists, so we really need help building a database and mapping out where these beetles are,” said Leslie Allee, a Cornell research associate.
The C-9 ladybug is the nine-spotted Coccinella novemnotata. Children between the ages of 5-11 in Native American, rural, farming and low-income areas are especially encouraged to help in the Lost Ladybug Project, taking photos of any ladybugs they find and sending them to Cornell for identification and inclusion in a database. The organizers of the project hope that they’ll be able to excite these children about science and conservation of the natural world as they carry out this important research.
Scientists don’t yet know whether the disappearance of the 9-spotted ladybug will spur a swell in the population of crop-devastating pests – it’s not clear whether other varieties of ladybugs will be as effective. It’s thought that the disappearance is likely tied to a combination of habitat loss and invasion of foreign competitors or predators.
For more info on the Lost Ladybug Project and how you can help, check out LostLadybug.org.
Link [MSNBC] + [Lost Ladybug Project]
Photo credit: Flickr user peasap
Related Posts:
Pollution is a Bitch: Flowers Losing Their Scent, Bees Losing Their Way‘Crazy Raspberry Ants’ Invade Houston, Ruin Computers
‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ in Bees Could Affect Food Prices
Chow Down on Insects to Help the Environment
Clean Rivers in Maine Lead to Black Fly Swarms
“Scientists don’t yet know whether the disappearance of the 9-spotted ladybug will spur a swell in the population of crop-devastating pests…”
If that happens, a band-aid approach would be to use more pesticides (which is probably part of the cause as it is).
I have hundreds of 18 dot ladybugs hatching on my acreage this week. They range in color from orange to red. I guess these are common and not the type you are looking for? please advise.