I wasn’t quite intending for this post to be so involved, but I happened upon an article which said that in Welsh, you can call ladybugs buwch goch cwta, which translates to English as “little red cow,” which I think is absolutely adorable.
buwch: from the Middle Welsh buchmeaning cow, ultimately a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root gwou-, meaning cattle
goch: a mutation of the adjective coch,from the Latin coccummeaning “scarlet, berry, dye or dyed red,” from the Ancient Greek term κόκκος kokkos, which is a “grain, seed or the color scarlet”
cwta(I’ve also seen it spelled gota), means “short or little,” and is supposedly borrowed from a Middle English term which meant “to cut down”
It turns out, though, that the name for these beetles is actually quite complicated in a lot of European based languages.
First, to look at the taxonomic family name coccinellidae.This comes from the Latin coccineusmeaning “coloured scarlet,” a term which you can also see in the Welsh, it is the same root from which we get coccumand eventually goch.There are a few other descendants of this term in nearby languages as well, like the French coccinelleand the Italian coccinella.
However, obviously, that’s not where we get the English name ladybug.In Old English, they were called lady cows (again a nod to the Welsh), in which cowwas a comment on it’s spotted wings and ladywas in reference to the Virgin Mary. The seven black dots displayed on its back were believed to have been symbolic of her seven sorrows as are described in Christian scripture.
Although English uses the more ambiguous lady, many languages have retained the Mary portion in the modern name, like Catalan marieta, Danish mariehøne(literally “Mary chicken”) and German Marienkäfer(literally “Mary beetle.”)
I have absolutely no idea what chickens have to do with anything, but good job Danish, I like it.
These sweet little ladybirds wish but to snuggle against your wrist. Their recent brushes with gamma radiation may have caused them to start glowing unusual colours, but that just adds to their appeal, right?
In my last post, a reblog from last year, I mentioned the cut conifers to be sold as Christmas trees had started arriving at the garden centre where I work, but together with the trees we also received some visitors.
As of October, ladybugs (Coccinella septempunctata) begin congregating in sheltered places to spend their winter dormancy period, a time when their mobility and activity level are strictly dependant on the temperature, and it seems a large number of them had chosen the dense, evergreen foliage of the Nordmann firs (Abies nordmanniana) to do so. Whenever I would free a tree from its net, shaking it, several ladybugs (as well as a variety of spiders) would fall to the floor, suddenly thrown out of their cosy temporary home.
I collected and placed dozens of them around the garden centre, where they will be valuable allies in my battle against aphids next year, but I also decided to relocate some of them to my allotment. I had one of those boxes sold as “butterfly houses” installed on a south-facing portion of the fence, and I thought it could serve well for the purpose of giving them shelter, so I filled it with some bamboo sticks and placed them inside to see what they would do.
They seem to find it suitable, the following day the box was still full and the majority had climbed up to rest under the roof. If all goes well, they will spend the winter there, and when they emerge they will find the place to be a good breeding site, which will also, inexorably, be filled with food for them.
Aphids, mites and all of you, soft-bodied insects, cower before my army now!
Exactly two months after giving the ladybugs a new home, I gave a small group of them a first task. A Salvia plant overwintering in my mini greenhouse had become the target of likewise overwintering aphids, taking advantage of the sheltered position. I could have simply used an insecticidal spray, but why, when I can mingle with biological warfare?!
Jokes aside, any shelter or protective structure you can give a plant against the cold will also be ideal for other creatures. Biological pest control means playing with the balance in the numbers of these creatures, encouraging what’s beneficial to your situation.
Go ladybugs!
Thanks to an unexpected heatwave, which has raised the temperature to the highest ever recorded in February here in the UK, guess who was out and mating today?
