11 spot ladybird Illustration: R Lewington

Ladybirds are a recent introduction to the Falkland Islands. Robin Woods reports here on their status and natural history.

The 11-spot ladybird, a beetle known to entomologists as Coccinella 11-punctata, is native to Britain, Europe and North Africa across to north-western India, but is not found in tropical regions. It was introduced to Australasia about a century ago and has been recorded from Tasmania and New Zealand. Two forms have been described and the specimens from the South Pacific are of the western form, which is native to Britain. The species has not been recorded in mainland South America.

First Collected Falkland Specimen
Roger Booth of the entomological department at the London Natural History Museum was in Stanley in March 1982 and heard from schoolchildren that ladybirds were seen in Stanley during the summer of 1981/82. He had confirmed that the earliest Falkland Island specimens in the museum are of the western form of this species and were collected at Surf Bay near Stanley by Kevin Standring on 20 January 1982.

Earliest Recollections
It is not known when ladybirds first arrived in the Falklands. Some people with whom I talked thought that they had come with plants for the tree nursery or fresh foods. Others thought that they had hibernated in vehicles or mobile homes transported from England in the 1970s or 1980s. Harold Bennett was uncertain about their arrival though it was years ago. He remarked that there had been two kinds, one larger that died out after a few years and one smaller, presumably the 11-spot. Nick Pitaluga’s recollections from childhood produced the earliest date. He remembered seeing them in about 1965 at Salvador, partly because the McLeod children had then taught him the ‘Ladybird, ladybird fly away home’ thyme.

Recent Records
During my last visit between October 1995 and January 1996, I saw seven individuals. These were on a cliff top at Sea Lion Island, in the vegetable and flower gardens, on driftwood at a beach and 900 feet up Cliff Mountain on West Point Island, near the jetty at Salvador and on paving behind a house at North Arm. I also had reports of their presence at Beaver, Saunders and Speedwell islands, Port Louis, Island Habour on East Falkland and in Stanley.

Around the Islands in Suitcase and Matchbox
Alan Cordory, from Mount Pleasant Airport, reported seeing many emerging from dead, black tussac peat on a hot day in November 1993, on the south side of Sea Lion island. Several people described how they had helped to spread ladybirds from Stanley, either accidentally by carrying one or more in a suitcase or intentionally, by catching and taking some in a match-box. The ladybirds at Beaver island, North Arm, Speedwell and Teal River were reported to have been introduced like this within the last ten years.

Have You Seen One?
The carnivorous ladybirds prey on aphids (greenfly), which have also been introduced at several settlements. Little is known about the preferred habitats or food of the 11-spo Ladybirds in the Falklands, though it is not restricted to settlement gardens and it survived what was probably the hardest winter in the this century (1995). Any further information about their first appearance in the Falklands would be most welcome.

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Harold Bennett, Roger Booth, tony Carey, Alan Cordory, David Gray, Isabel and Phillip Hutton, Ronnie and Yvonne Larsen, Clara and Bill MacKay, Mike and Sue Morrison, Roddy and Lily Napier, Robin and Nick Pitaluga, Suzan and David Pole-Evans and Sally and Jerome Poncet for information and observations.

Reference: Majerus, M & Kearns, P. (1989). Ladybirds. Naturalists’ Handbooks No. 10, Richmond Publishing Co Ltd., Slough, UK.>

From: the WARRAH, Newsletter of Falklands Conservation. Number 10, November 1996.