A deep dive into the relationships between ladybirds and ants. With a podcast recommendation for Just Plain Wrong - @plainwrongpod on Twitter. 

My apologies for the muffled audio quality on this episode - in the first version it sounded very uneven. 

Sources: 

https://billsbirding.blogspot.com/2014/06/scarce-7-spot-ladybird.html

Evolutionary Perspectives on Myrmecophily in Ladybirds: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2012/591570/ 

https://www.jungledragon.com/image/110769/globe_marked_lady_beetles_azya_orbigera.html - Globe Marked ladybeetles 

https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/southern-africa/view/project/645756/indigenous-ladybird-species-distribution-in-south-africa-coccinellidae/observations - Photo of the blue-eyed ant munching lady beetle 

Field Guide to the Ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland

Spotlight Ladybirds by Richard Comont

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331072095_High_parasitization_of_a_rare_ladybird_Platynaspis_luteorubra_-_a_reason_of_its_rarity - High parasitisation of Platynaspis luteorubra 

A Natural History of Ladybird Beetles by Michael Majerus et al

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40863799

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10905-008-9163-y 

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/ants/black-garden-ant 

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/ants/yellow-meadow-ant

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/ants/Myrmica_ruba.htm 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4221364?seq=1 - Waxy coatings on Scymnus ladybirds. 

https://thecreative.cafe/the-fable-of-the-ant-and-the-ladybug-31115946df22?gi=a382b2df1244#:~:text=The%20Fable%20of%20the%20Ant%20and%20the%20Ladybug.,at%20all.%20In%20fact%2C%20it%20was%20a%20ladybug%21 - The fable of the ant and the ladybug 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/large-blue/id1334821500?i=1000519771414 - Species Podcast episode on the Large Blue butterfly

________________________________

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Music by Debra Torrance :)