ARS | Publication request: 'Lost' Ladybugs Found Again in South Dakota

Submitted to: Popular Publication
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: May 7, 2010
Publication Date: May 7, 2010
Citation: Hesler, L.S., Catangui, M.A., Nixon, L. 2010. 'Lost' Ladybugs Found Again in South Dakota. Available: http://www.livescience.com/animals/lost-ladybugs-bts-100507.html.

Technical Abstract: The purpose of this article is to give a first-person account of involvement in research directly related to the NSF-sponsored Lost Ladybug Project. I have summarized research findings in in which three previously common kinds of lady beetles have become difficult to detect in eastern states, but could be found in western states. My determination of the presence of lost ladybugs in western South Dakota and western Nebraska fits a pattern in which most recent finds have occurred in western states. Many of these recent finds were submitted as digital images by citizen scientists to the Lost Ladybug Web site run by Losey and colleagues at Cornell, http://www.lostladybug.org/. These findings raise questions as to why lost ladybugs are more easily found in western than eastern parts of North America, and why their populations have declined in general. Entomologists on the Lost Ladybug Project are now avidly seeking answers through field and laboratory experiments.