I always wondered why there are so many ladybirds in our garden, all sorts of them. Well, today I discovered it: we have this shrub in our frontgarden that has red branches and even red leaves in the autumn. And taking a closer look at it, I saw hundreds of those little red beetles resting on the leaves. So why do they all live there I asked myself, it couldn't be camouflage as ladybirds are found everywhere and that red is supposed to be a warning to their natural enemies anyway. But then I turned over one of the leaves and ha! Loads and loads of lice, lice-eggs, fly-eggs, and some slimy stuff. Just a ladybird's paradise! :)
a Harmonia axyridis, devouring a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). There were a lot of ladybirds with this kind of dot-pattern. Two major dots on the side and the other ones are almost vanished. Maybe they are "siblings".