June 2009 Results: 

We have a total 188 members of the BLBB volunteer network across Ohio.  From our June sample, we received samples from 168 of our volunteers, for a total response of 89.4%.  We are very pleased with the strong commitment our volunteers have for this project and its goals.

Of the 14 species we are monitoring in Ohio, 10 were found in our June sample.  Below Table 1 indicates the total number of beetles in the 168 sticky card samples collected. Lady beetles in bold are exotic species.  The most abundant species found was the multicolored Asian lady beetle followed by the fourteen spotted, both of which are exotic. The most abundant native species was the orange spotted lady beetle.  This is a small black lady beetle with orange spots.

Table 1: Number of individuals of each lady beetle species found on sticky traps in the June data collection.

We found that of all the species of lady beetles included in our study, the multicolored Asian was the most difficult to identify.  This species can vary from dark red to light orange and may or may not have spots.  The way to separate this lady beetle from other species is to look at its pronotum.  If you see a black "W" shape on the pronotum you are looking at a multicolored Asian lady beetle. 

Two summer student researchers have been analyzing our June data.  Tori Massaro, a high school student at Wooster High School was interested to determine if garden size or garden type (food garden, flower garden, or mixed food and flower) influenced the diversity and abundance of lady beetles.  Bethany Hunt, a college student at Otterbein College examined whether the landscape surrounding a garden site influenced the community of lady beetles found.  Both students are still working on their projects and will include the August collection in their findings, their June results are shown below.

Tori found that garden type influenced the abundance of exotic lady beetles collected. Exotic species were more abundant in food gardens compared with flower gardens.  This may be due to exotic species responding to prey populations in food gardens. We did not see a difference in the abundance of native lady beetles in food versus flower gardens. She also did not detect any effect of garden size on native or exotic lady beetles.

Figure 1.  Abundance of Exotic and Native Lady Beetles in Flower and Food Gardens.

Bethany found that the landscape within which a garden site was located influenced the lady beetles found.  Overall, lady beetles were more abundant in rural gardens versus suburban or urban gardens (Figure 2).  She found that exotic species and native species analyzed separately followed this same pattern, being most abundant in rural gardens. Click HERE to check out Bethany's full report.

Figure 2.  Abundance of Lady Beetles in Rural, Suburban and Urban Habitats.

Figure 3.  Abundance of EXOTIC Lady Beetles in Rural, Suburban and Urban Habitats.

Figure 4.  Abundance of NATIVE Lady Beetles in Rural, Suburban and Urban Habitats.