Ladybirds or bishy barnabees.
by Chris, 16 August, 2020, 1 comments
In Norfolk, a ladybird is sometimes referred to as a bishy barnabee.; this rather curious name is explored in this article in The Spectator from last year. Ladybirds are beetles and are easy to recognise. Most have dome-shaped bodies, with an oval outline and three pairs of jointed legs. The most common ladybirds have bright red wing cases with black spots covering their bodies. Others are yellow with black spots, some white and brown, or even striped. It has been estimated that there are some five thousand species of ladybird across the world, with 40+ species in the British Isles.
Their bright colour serves as a ‘do not eat me’ warning to would-be predators, apparently they have a bitter taste. Birds such as swifts and swallows eat ladybirds, as do some spiders, frogs, wasps, and dragonflies. When challenged, ladybirds can produce an ‘unpleasant’, yellow, oily fluid; or they may ‘play dead’. The pine ladybird when under threat ‘clamps’ itself to the surface that it is resting on. Bright colours are used as a defence mechanism in a number of insects.
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