Seven-spotted ladybug

Lost Ladybug Project

Yes, it could be sharper, with better depth of field. However, the photograph serves its purpose. Its purpose is to document the incidence of lady bugs in my area as part of the Lost Ladybug Project. It is a citizen science project where with people without any particular science background can gather meaningful data about the distribution and populations of various species. Birds, frogs and several kinds of insects have respective citizen science projects associated with them. For Lost Ladybug, part of the protocol is to submit photographs of ladybug beetles seen locally. Technically perfect images are nice, but not necessary. This photograph has sufficient detail to do the job. I tentatively identify it as a seven-spotted ladybug, Coccinella septempunctata. This particular species is native to Europe, but has been successfully introduced to North America and has become widespread here. Even so, it is eclipsed by the wildly and somewhat annoyingly successful introduction of the Asian Ladybug, The image was taken with a Nikon D90 and a Micro-nikkor 60mm AF. The ladybug is held in a plastic bug box. Holding a camera with one hand and the object with another seldom turns out as sharp as you think it should! But it’s still pretty.