2005 - Whitby Naturalists

It has been reported from numerous ltx'.ations, nlostly in S. E. England,
but also in Devon and the Isle of \fight. They don't have a hibernation
period so typicaliy they have two gcnerations a year. They are
larger than most other species of iadybirds and arc irighly variable in
coiour. I wiil look out fbr {urther reports of ttreir progrcss.
The first report I recreived this year was of a 2-spot l-actryhird on Marcir
ZL"a and four rnore were seen in a housc cln April 29't'and outside, one
on May 13* and two on May 29'n.
A puzzling report was on Marcir 24* of a smail ycl1ow Ladybird witir
white spots. This coulci prissibly be the Crearn spot Ladybird or the
18-spot LadyLrird but a variant of the 10-spot Ladybird would be smalicr.
On April2!tr probabl.e Carpet bcctles wcre seelr in a house and on May
15,r a Cream spot Ladybird was sccn on clovcr.
Soldicr bcetles (Rhagonycha fulua) wcre secn on May 29't' and June l*
and on Junc 19't' an Orange Ladyblrd {Halyzitt 16-guuata) was seen.
A Whirligig beetle was seell in a puddle on the Moors. 'fhese beetles
are so-called bec.ar.lse thcy spend most of their adult lives skirnming
round and round on the surface of still or slow-moving watcr. Their
cycs are dlvidectr into two parts, which several books say is so that the
uppcr parr can see over the surt'ace of the water and thc lorver part see
undcr the water. A.D.Simms in "lnsect Natural l-{istory" says that this
uray be corrcct bur more evidence is nceded, as divieJecl eyes are present
irl s()nte non-aqtraric insectr,
i was pleased to receivc a postcard clated August 9't'reporting sightings
of Scxttn beetles {Necrophorus) sp. flying and resting aiongside the
{orest pati-1. Grcen Tiger beetles {Cicindela canpestris) were comrnon
thcre atiri :.rt rn()thcr site.
Anotirer Green Tiger beetle was reported on August 18tt'.
The last report was on October 16,n whcn thc Rove beetle ' tire Devil's
Coach Horse - (Ocypus olens) was seen crossing a patl-r. My Beetle
book says they are frequently {ound on tbotpaths and roads.
Since Marr 2003 I have been keeping an eye on some Figworr plants
anel tireir weevils in Sleights. This year there werc no rveevils when I
6rst looked on May i5.r., but from May 22"4 there wcre weevils, and