Cornell scientists are enlisting kids to find ladybugs in order to understand why some varieties of ladybug are becoming rare (and where they are).
A team of Cornell scientists is asking children for their help. They need them anywhere and everywhere in the country to start looking for ladybugs: “Find ’em, photograph ’em and send ’em.”
Leslie AlleeThe Lost Ladybug Project, funded with $2 million from the National Science Foundation to Cornell, is a nationwide hunt for ladybugs. The project is intended to help scientists better understand why some species of ladybugs have become extremely rare — including the official New York state insect, the nine-spotted ladybug, which hasn’t been seen in the state for 16 years — while other species have greatly increased both their numbers and range.
“This has happened very quickly, and we don’t know why, what impact it will have on controlling pests or how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare,” said Cornell entomologist and lead investigator John Losey, who noted that ladybugs are very important in the control of many pests. Other entomologists leading the project are Leslie Allee, a Cornell research associate, and Louis Hesler and Mike Catangui at South Dakota State University.
Lately Julia has been going through this love/hate (“awww”/”Die!Die!Die!”) relationship with insects. This might helps smooth things out.
She did a good job last night of handling the Pennsyltucky state insect, the firefly. She also did a good job of denuding the local flora in order to provide salad for fireflies, but that’s another worry.