It's here, the dreaded alien ladybird known as the Harlequin, so-called because it comes in various guises (see chart above). It is a Far Eastern beetle, which, having been introduced into North America, proceeded to eliminate a number of indigenous ladybird (ladybug) species there. It then turned up in southern Europe and is now rampantly colonising the British Isles. The fear is that it will do for our native ladybird fauna too (it eats other ladybirds when there's nothing better on the menu).Clare - my young naturalist friend - brought me two from her garden yesterday, and kindly released them in my garden - not wanting them in her own, pretty as they may be. What to do? Stamp on them? Ignore them? Try to negotiate with them, these Bin Ladens of the beetle world?
Seeing that they are immigrants, and probably adherents of some other faith than Christianity, it's more than your life's worth to risk the wrath of the Commission for Racial Equality by suggesting that they are undesirable aliens.
My big regret, though, is that you can't eat them. They contain nasty toxins and their elytra get stuck in your teeth. Typical of your devious Johnny Foreigner...
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