Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home...

We have had ladybug nature study this past week. It is nature study at it's best-we did not choose it, it just happened. I had noticed a large number or ladybug larva around Pumpkin's water bowl and was eager to share that with the girls. We took a couple of pictures. When I was at a friend's house this weekend I noticed that her door was hosting a large number of larva. Upon closer examination I found pupa. When I was back home I looked around the brick near where ours were and sure enough, we had pupa also.

We were able to identify our ladybugs as the Asian Ladybeetle or Harmonia axyridis. These are the ladybugs that are prolific in this area in the fall when they are invading homes in search of a place to overwinter. Grace, Bitsy, and I were outside on Monday and came across another ladybeetle. We were quite excited as it was different from the often seen Asian variety. It was a beautiful black beetle with two red spots. We believe it was a Korean variety of ladybug known as Chilocorus kuwanae.

Grace pulled out her nature sketch book with no parental prompting and sketched the ladybug lifecycle (we also printed out a lifecycle chart and cut and pasted it in.) We had fun identifying our beetles and learning about them. The best type of learning is spontaneous learning. Seatwork may be a necessity of life, but spontaneous learning is a necessity to nurture a love of learning.

Love,
Shawna