Ladies welcome

Count the spots . . . Our gardens are full of scarlet 7-spot ladybirds at the moment as a result of last year’s fine summer and mild winter. But did you know that Ireland is home to 19 species of these colourful, aphid-devouring beetles, including the striped ladybird and the hieroglyphic ladybird? There’s also a 2-spot, a 10-spot, an 11-spot, a 13-spot, a 14-spot, a 16-spot, an 18-spot, a 22-spot and a 24-spot ladybird, all of them resident species.

For a wonderful illustrated pocketbook guide to these and other insects, check out Insects of Ireland by Stephen McCormack and Eugenie Ryan, just published by Collins Press, €14.99.