Garden News (UK)

Do ladybirds snuggle together?

- Ken Smith, by email

Stefan says: On a warm, sunny day in January, you say you noticed several ladybirds ‘parked up’ as you put it, for the winter, and on the same piece of wood. There were three more groups of them with fewer individual­s. You wonder if they move around so those on the outside manage to snuggle in the middle.

All ladybird species hibernate, and gardeners often find them in winter, gathered together in clusters in the nooks and crannies of fence posts and similar places. Most groups are fairly small, but in some species many thousands may accumulate and estimates of up to a quarter of a million insects have been recorded on occasion. But do they rearrange themselves? I think it unlikely because, in a torpid state, at low temperatur­es, they wouldn’t have sufficient energy to move.

 ??  ?? Ladybirds huddle together when hibernatin­g
Ladybirds huddle together when hibernatin­g

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