Where was that, roughly? Sounds a bit like the 'harlequin' ladybird
Harmonia axyridis but there are many other very abundant ones which have these periods of migration.
In most parts of the world the "new" generation of ladybirds will emerge (from pupae) in late spring and then either hide away for the summer (aestivation)
or if population numbers are very high or there is little food available then they will often fly around looking for it, often achieving huge aggregations. This happened in UK in 1976 with millions of them annoying people but eventually ending up at the seaside where most of them drowned. Similar thing happened in Southeastern Europe in 1979 - this (rather poor scan) shows about half a metre of waterside in Greece
:
However some species also aggregate and travel to overwintering sites late Autumn - fewer fatalities with these but they can be annoying to people who live in their hibernation areas!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtngoat
Ah. Thanks! Yes, where I used to live, there used to be a specific season for them. They'd fly everywhere, land on us, on our house, on our cat (she'd be very annoyed  ), everywhere. Sometimes, when picking them out of my hair, I'd find a light orange or yellow one. The yellow one almost always had spots on them, but there weren't many yellows that I'd find. The worst ones to pick out, though, were the females with eggs on them.....  |