Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas's Journal

On May 13, I wandered through a neighbor’s yard, looking for lady beetles, known to most people as ladybugs. I had not found a single beetle in over an hour, which usually means that I will not find any if I continue surveying. I was about to dump the contents of my net when I noticed a tiny black speck with pale yellow spots. “Aha! An Octavia Lady Beetle,” I thought to myself. After scooping the tiny beetle into a vial and photographing her, I realized that this was a new species to me. As it turns out, this was also a new species to the state of Vermont—Hyperaspis troglodytes—which only has a total of three observations in iNaturalist across its range, which stretches from New England to the midwestern U.S..

Hyperaspis troglodytes © Julia Pupko

My neighbor may not be the only person to have a rare lady beetle in their yard, you may have one in your own backyard as well! From June 18 to 26, 2022 the Vermont Atlas of Life team is holding their annual Lady Beetle BioBlitz. Participation is simple—whenever you find a lady beetle, simply photograph it and upload your observations to iNaturalist. Your observations will be automatically pulled into the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas and the Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz 2022. You can search anywhere from your favorite natural area to your own backyard! Be sure to join the Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz project to stay up to date with bioblitz events.

Follow this link to learn more about how to search for and photograph lady beetles. For more information on our search for missing lady beetles, check out this blog post. The Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas website can be found here.

Upcoming Events:
June 24: Lady Beetle walk at Round Pond, South Hero VT (check back for details soon!)
June 25: BioBlitz at Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge - event details here

Breaking news - our 2022 Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz starts in just under 5 days! From June 18 to June 26, we will be scouring Vermont for lady beetles. We hope you will join us in our search, whether you look in your backyard or at the peaks of the mountains. Join the 2022 Lady Beetle BioBlitz project by following this link.

Want to join VCE biologists and ECO AmeriCorps members for lady beetle walks/ bioblitzes? Register for one or both of these events here:

• Lady Beetle walk at Round Pond State Park in South Hero: June 24, 5:30 to 7 PM. More info and register here.
• Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge BioBlitz: June 25, 8 AM to 3 PM. More info and registration here.

Don't know where or how to start searching for and documenting lady beetles? Check out this post for some more information.

Want to learn more about Vermont's lady beetle species so you know what to look for? Check out:

• Species profiles for lady beetles documented in VT
• Specifics on our search for 4 missing native species

Email Julia Pupko at jpupko@vtecostudies.org with any questions!

Our third annual Vermont Lady Beetle Bioblitz is certainly off to a dreary start. “When it is raining and below 55, it is usually rather difficult to rustle up lady beetles,” said Julia Pupko, Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas Project Coordinator. “Even though today's conditions were not optimal (or even average) for lady beetle searches, we still had 7 observations of 6 different species! I would say that the first day of the BioBlitz went very well.”

Today, naturalists across the state found non-native Seven-spotted, Fourteen-spotted, and Asian Lady Beetle species, along with the native Polished, Spotted, and Parenthesis Lady Beetle species. Check out the observations on the Vermont Lady Beetle BioBlitz 2022 page. While you are there, don’t forget to join the project!

Polished Lady Beetle © redeft23 on iNaturalist