Invaders May Destroy Three Brit Ladybirds
Posted on: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 06:00 CST
By MATT ROPER
A FOREIGN species of ladybird is threatening to drive three native varieties to extinction, conservationists warned yesterday.
The red beetles could soon be wiped out by a mass invasion of a larger bug from South East Asia.
The harlequin ladybird threatens British bugs by taking their food - and eating their young.
Expert Dr Michael Majerus of Cambridge University, believes most of Britain will be overrun by the black or orange beetle by 2008.
He said: "In ecological terms this is a disaster. I don't know of a worse one.
"Once the harlequin is over the whole of mainland Britain, native aphid-feeding ladybirds will suffer greatly and will be expelled to the ecological margins." The harlequin was first seen here last September and is thought to have come in flower and vegetable exports from Europe, or by flying here direct.
The British seven-spot and two-spot varieties, which until recently were common, are under threat along with the rarer five- spot.
Conservationists are now calling for three native ladybirds to be added to the UK Biodiversity Action Plan's list of priority species, meaning the Government must act to save them.
While other non-native species have caused our wildlife problems - the North American grey squirrel has largely driven out the native red - no foreign invader has yet destroyed a whole species as the harlequin is likely to do.
Matt Sharlow, from charity Buglife, said the insect has a huge appetite for greenfly, leaving the native ladybirds to starve. He said: "The harlequin may sound like a bit of a jester but there's nothing funny about it."
Harlequins are about a quarter of an inch long, with either an orange body with up to 22 black spots, or a black body with two to four large orange spots.
As well as eating the young of indigenous species, they also damage soft fruits such as strawberries by sucking out juice.
In winter they move indoors, damaging soft furnishings by excreting a dark sticky fluid.
Source: Daily Mirror
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