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Coelophora inaequalis. 9-spot colour form.

Well! The other day I had the best ladybird experience of my life! I popped down the corner store at lunchtime (a place I usually only frequent at night to grab some emergency milk or whatever) as it was a public holiday and I wasn't sure if they would close early or something. Anyway, I passed a house I've passed hundreds of times (but almost always at night) only to discover their front wall and plants covered in hundreds of ladybirds! If you were an average person on the street you might not have even noticed them, but my ladybird senses tingled off the chart! =D

All sorts of species too, although the Common Spotted Ladybird (Harmonia conformis) was the most abundant, easily more than a hundred in evidence, ranging from tiny first stage larval instars right through to big fat final stage instars, pupae and adult beetles. Just marvellous!

Next most common was the Variable Ladybird (Coelophora inaequalis) of which I stopped counting at thirty, but there must've been a good fifty at least. Then about twenty Transverse Ladybirds (Coccinella transversalis) in all different colours from very pale yellow right through to a dark crimson red. I spied about a dozen Spotted Amber Ladybirds (Hippodamia variegata) which are quite delightful... for introduced species.

Then bringing up the rear were a couple of Yellow Shouldered Ladybirds (Apolinus lividigaster), two Minute Two-spotted Ladybirds (Diomus notescens), and one individual that I wasn't sure if it was a Epilachna species ladybird, a 9-spot colour form of the Variable Ladybird or a Common Spotted Ladybird that had just emerged from it's pupa and hadn't coloured up yet. I worked out later it was a 9-spot colour form Variable Ladybird. And finally one of the tiny, tiny black Scymnus-like species ladybirds that I've found near impossible to identify.

So! A great experience! It was especially gratifying to see so many pupae as I hadn't managed to find any in my own garden this season... just half a discarded husk. The house has an old-fashioned style veggie garden out the front that in Spring has various things like pumpkins and beans and such, at the moment it just has some huge sunflowers, a nice Passionfruit vine and lots of lavender. So, grow yourself a garden like that with no pesticides and you too could have the pleasure of hundreds of ladybird visitors! =D

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I didn't have my camera with me at the time, so these photos come from a follow-up visit a few days later. Most didn't turn out very well and I'm not entirely happy with what I got so I will no doubt return for another try or two over the next few days. Especially as more adult beetles emerge there might perhaps be a chance of a good aggregation shot... if I'm lucky. Quite a few more empty pupae husks were in evidence on my follow-up visit, and noticably more adult Common Spotted Ladybird beetles in attendance. I was delighted to witness one emerge from it's pupa, it's elytra the most delicate shade of green. I was surprised to see that the pronotum comes out fully coloured however.

Not as many Spotted Amber Ladybirds as the initial visit, and I couldn't find any Yellow Shouldered Ladybirds at all this time, but I did manage to get a couple of nice shots of the 9-spot colour form of the Variable Ladybird... so that was good. I also saw a Mealybug Ladybird (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri) a reasonably common ladybird to be sure, but this was my first ever sighting of one. Couldn't get a decent photo though unfortunately.

Cottesloe, April 2009.

Having tested the water in Sydney, Spanish fashion chain Zara will open its second Australian store in Melbourne on Wednesday.

In April the retailer managed to bring crowds to a standstill at the opening of its latest store in the Pitt Street Mall. Speaking to Australian press, communications officer Jesus Echevarria said of the company’s expansion:

"We don't consider outside factors; we prefer to see what our own customers are doing and what the demand is for Zara and then we move."

According to Echevarria, Zara is now considering stores in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth for its next moves south of the equator.

The Melbourne store will operate over 1700 square metres in the Bourke Street Mall.