New lady beetle species discovered in VT, lady beetle bioblitz 2022, and upcoming events

On May 13, I wandered through a neighbor’s yard, looking for lady beetles, known to most people as ladybugs. I had not found a single beetle in over an hour, which usually means that I will not find any if I continue surveying. I was about to dump the contents of my net when I noticed a tiny black speck with pale yellow spots. “Aha! An Octavia Lady Beetle,” I thought to myself. After scooping the tiny beetle into a vial and photographing her, I realized that this was a new species to me. As it turns out, this was also a new species to the state of Vermont—Hyperaspis troglodytes—which only has a total of three observations in iNaturalist across its range, which stretches from New England to the midwestern U.S..


Hyperaspis troglodytes © Julia Pupko

My neighbor may not be the only person to have a rare lady beetle in their yard, you may have one in your own backyard as well! From June 18 to 26, 2022 the Vermont Atlas of Life team is holding their annual Lady Beetle BioBlitz. Participation is simple—whenever you find a lady beetle, simply photograph it and upload your observations to iNaturalist. Your observations will be automatically pulled into the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas and the Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz 2022. You can search anywhere from your favorite natural area to your own backyard! Be sure to join the Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz project to stay up to date with bioblitz events.

Follow this link to learn more about how to search for and photograph lady beetles. For more information on our search for missing lady beetles, check out this blog post. The Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas website can be found here.

Upcoming Events:
June 24: Lady Beetle walk at Round Pond, South Hero VT (check back for details soon!)
June 25: BioBlitz at Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge - event details here

Posted on 06 June, 2022 18:38 by jpupko jpupko

Comments

Congratulations on this wonderful find!

Posted by tsn almost 2 years ago

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