Following my fail with the eagle (in extras album) this morning, I was attending to my tomato plants when I spotted this creature curled up in one of the leaves. I carefully cut the leaf off to get him away from the plant and ran up to get my macro (remembering to check the settings this time!). The critter entertained me for awhile - no idea what it is and hope there aren't more bothering the plants!
Took a look through my bug book but didn't see anything like him. But if you found him curled up in the leaves, it's almost certain that what was going to hatch would be eating them. Might be time to look into a eco-safe bug repellent for your tomatoes.
Cute one, well captured. For me this looks like a stage of larvae of a lady bug. So do not panic. They eat plant lice and aphids,... and imho are beneficary insects.
How interesting to find this identified as a lady-bird larvae! Seems an amazing transformation. Thanks to your great photo we now know what to look for. Cheers
Wow! Glad for all the insect knowledge here. It would have been sad to have found non toxic way to get rid of such a gift and found out afterwards that it was to be a lady bug! Beautiful capture
Nice find and neat macro. He is the larva of a Harlequin Ladybird ( Harmonia axyridis), I think you call them Ladybugs. They love to eat aphids, so he won't do your tomatoes any harm at all.
He is an artificially introduced species into the USA to control aphids and scale insects, and they are spreading across the country quite rapidly.
They are also invading the UK, and there is some concern that they might be causing a problem with some of our native species of Ladybird as the Harlequin will eat the larva of the local ones.
I'm so pleased he turns out to be a good guy as he does look kind of friendly. But perhaps that is a guise, as I too remember reading about the Harlequin ladybirds and how they are a threat to more local varients. You have created an excellent portrait and I like the gentle reflections of him and the leaf in your photo.
He is an artificially introduced species into the USA to control aphids and scale insects, and they are spreading across the country quite rapidly.
They are also invading the UK, and there is some concern that they might be causing a problem with some of our native species of Ladybird as the Harlequin will eat the larva of the local ones.