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Issue 52 | May 2009
The ladybird Illeus galbula
Photo courtesy of S. Axford
Ladybirds had their 15 minutes of fame when the ABC's Catalyst program aired a segment on the beetle in November last year. This was triggered when Entomology's Adam Slipinski's book, Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae): Their biology and classification won a Whitley Award Commendation.
As part of the program, Catalyst launched a National Ladybird Survey whereby viewers could send in photos of ladybirds they had found and have them identified. Catalyst also mapped submissions to the area of Australia they were sent from. They also offered prizes for the 'best picture' and 'most interesting find' with the prize being a copy of Adam's book.
Now, the survey has ended and the prizes awarded. There were more than 2300 entries from across Australia, and even overseas. According to Entomology's Anne Hastings, who looks after the Ladybirds of Australia website, 'It was like having thousands of pairs of eyes all over Australia'. Anne is particularly excited by some of the images which she says are really amazing.
People were asked to do their own identifications using the Ladybirds of Australia website. Senior Researcher with Catalyst, Holly Trueman, then checked them with assistance from Adam for the curly ones. Adam also helped Catalyst set up a gallery of pictures of common ladybirds to help with identifications.
The ABC says that Paul Willis (Catalyst presenter) and Holly will be liaising with CSIRO to interpret the data and write a scientific paper based on the results of the survey.
