Ladybird larva

By the time I got round to pruning the Minarettes, the young leaves on the cherry were pretty badly infested with blackfly. I didn’t think too much of it, just pruned the tree and threw the prunings into the compost heap.

When I went out to the Grow Dome this morning, I noticed a lot of blackfly crawling around on the lid of the compost bin. It was like blackfly rush hour. I was going to do something about it, but then I saw that a ladybird larva was munching away happily. Later on in the day, he’d been joined by some pals.

I thought that was good news, but having looked closely at the photograph I’m not so sure. The ladybird larvae that I’ve seen previously looked similar to this, but weren’t spiny. I think these ones may be Harlequin ladybirds – the alien invader.

I’ve submitted a report, and the best photo, to the Harlequin Ladybird Survey. Hopefully they will be able to make an identification from the photograph, and let me know which species these little beasties are.