ONE is a compact beetle with a hard, brightly coloured dome marked by black spots, the other is a flimsy phantom with a translucent lime-green body, orange compound eyes and four oversized diaphanous wings fit to carry a fairy skyward. The tenacious ladybird and the ephemeral lacewing have nothing in common by way of appearance, but both hibernate and both produce overwintering eggs, which hatch into horror-film larvae with a voracious appetite for the same prey. The larval stage of the rotund ladybird deservedly gets widespread credit for chomping 200 aphids a day and the adult culls a further 50 or so. The larva of the fragile lacewing, emerging from individual eggs suspended on fine hairs attached to the food plant, is equally active against the garden pest, but has never attracted the same recognition or respect. Its method of feeding is also different. No grabbing and munching for this little predator: it pierces its prey with a hollow head-mounted maxilla (or needle), injects a fluid that dissolves the aphid's innards, then sucks the soup back through the needlea process that takes a mere 90 seconds. It gets through some 100 aphids a day and the adult lacewing mops up more, using its mandibles. Little wonder that, among entomologists, the lacewing has two graphic nicknames, aphid lion and aphid wolf, whereas the ladybird enjoys a genteel identity linked to the red of the Virgin Mary's cloak in medieval paintings.
The lacewing can also claim a particular distinguishing feature-it can hear. Tympanal organs at the base of the radial vein in each forewing, the smallest known in Nature, can detect the ultrasonic signals emitted by bats, so the lacewing aloft in the evening closes its wings and drops to safety. In addition, scolopidial organs on the insect's legs pick up low-frequency sounds produced during courtship, inviting contact with a partner. By contrast, in typical beetle fashion, the ladybird is deaf.
This story is from the June 01, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 01, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Put some graphite in your pencil
Once used for daubing sheep, graphite went on to become as valuable as gold and wrote Keswick's place in history. Harry Pearson inhales that freshly sharpened-pencil smell
Dulce et decorum est
Michael Sandle is the Wilfred Owen of art, with his deeply felt sense of the futility of violence. John McEwen traces the career of this extraordinary artist ahead of his 88th birthday
Heaven is a place on earth
For the women of the Bloomsbury group, their country gardens were places of refuge, reflection and inspiration, as well as a means of keeping loved ones close by, discovers Deborah Nicholls-Lee
A haunt of ancient peace - The gardens at Iford Manor, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire The home of the Cartwright-Hignett family
After recent renovations, this masterpiece of Harold Peto's garden-making must be counted one of the finest gardens in England
It's the plants, stupid
I WON my first prize for gardening when I was nine years old at prep school. My grandmother was delighted-it was she who had sent me the seeds of godetia, eschscholtzia and Virginia stock that secured my victory.
Pretty as a picture
The proliferation of honey-coloured stone cottages is part of what makes the Cotswolds so beguiling. Here, we pick some of our favourites currently on the market
How golden was my valley
These four magnificent Cotswold properties enjoy splendid views of hill and dale
Mere moth or merveille du jour?
Moths might live in the shadows of their more flamboyant butterfly counterparts, but some have equally artistic names, thanks to a 'golden' group, discovers Peter Marren
The magnificent seven
The Mars Badminton Horse Trials, the oldest competition of its kind in the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend. Kate Green chooses seven heroic winners in its history
Angels in the house
Winged creatures, robed figures and celestial bodies are under threat in a rural church. Jo Caird speaks to the conservators working to save northern Europe's most complete Romanesque wall paintings