Halmus chalybeus, a loveliness found in a cabbage tree

Abstract

On the 6 th of May 2014 my colleague and I conducted a Better Border Biosecurity (B3) survey in Craigavon Park in Blockhouse Bay, Auckland. Our target insects are native Lepidoptera. This park is ideal as it contains plenty of regenerating native forest. The primary plants we survey at this site include Kawakawa, Titoki, Mahoe and Cabbage trees. At certain times of the year, particularly spring, we find an abundance of native caterpillars. With the weather cooling down and new growth on plants dwindling, on this day native caterpillars proved particularly hard to find. We searched many leaves of many shrubs, finding slugs, slaters, an occasional weta, mealy bugs and spiders. At one final stop at a Cabbage tree regularly frequented by us, a thorough search was undertaken, leaves near the centre systematically pulled back; still no caterpillars, instead a magnificent gathering of Steelblue ladybirds, Halmus chalybeus (Boisduval, 1835) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) with at least fifty individuals present. Ladybirds are known to overwinter in such locations, but this spot appeared to be a very popular one indeed. Aptly, the colloquial term for a group of ladybirds is a loveliness.