A few days ago my daughter went outside to play with water bubbles and soon called out to me that she’d found a ladybird. When I got out I found it was in her bucket of water and assumed it had been there for a while and had drowned. I got a stick to pull it out so she could use the water, and it grabbed on but didn’t move, I think it was pretty tired, but still alive.

We put it on the table and waited. Eventually, it got its energy back and we were able to watch it dry itself off and take some photos.

It’s a new species we hadn’t photographed before, an Adonis Ladybird, also known as a Spotted Amber Ladybird (in Australia), or Variegated Ladybug (in America).

It’s a very small ladybird, ours didn’t have many spots, especially towards the front of its wings, but looking at other photos people have taken that can vary greatly. Its pronotum has a white border, and what I found interesting, there’s a black spot at the front of its wings that is surrounded by white.

Photos were taken with my Fujifilm X-A7 and macro extension.