Ladybug Life Cycle

I was sitting on my balcony where I have some hop plants growing in pots, and doing some reading. I noticed a particularly huge ladybug doing a funny butt wiggle, and the I realized she was laying eggs! I sat and observed for a while, and took some photos that I thought I'd share here. Some of the focus isn't the best because I took these photos with my cell phone, but I hope you find them as interesting as I do!

Sorry for the lighting of the larvae on the underside of the leaf. I'll try to take better pictures later in the day, if I can.

The sun just went behind a cloud, so I was able to get a really good one of an egg group. How cool! Also, in order to make this post something of a brick, I'll use the awesome power of observation to anecdotally assume that hop plants are good ladybug habitat.

wonderful pictures! thanks for posting them

Judith Browning wrote:wonderful pictures! thanks for posting them

My pleasure! I feel privileged to have witnessed it, and what better place to share than on permies? I wish I had had the wherewithal to video record the mama laying the eggs, but I was too entranced by it, and only thought of documenting and sharing after she had finished. I'll keep an eye out though... maybe I'll be able to catch her or another mom in action soon!

UPDATE!! I was lucky enough to get home when many of the ladybug eggs were about to or were hatching! I hope you enjoy them... the lighting today was much better than the other day!

These are great! I've got a lot of ladybug action on my flowering parsnips right now.

Thank you Matu! I'm pretty fascinated by it.

Any idea how they overwinter in cold climates?