Coccinellidae Distribution through Different Habitats

• Katie Allen

  Juniata College

  Author

Coccinellidae, commonly known as ladybugs, hibernate every Winter and awaken every Spring. This experiment studies where Coccinellidae distribute a few weeks after they awaken. This is the time of year that they lay their eggs and start to establish food sources. Coccinellidae distribution was studied in a backyard in New Windsor Maryland in late April. 5 traps were each established at 5 different habitats to estimate approximately how many Coccinellidae were inhabiting a location. These habitats assessed were a bed of flowers, in the woods, in a small garden, in the open sun, and under the shade of a house porch. It was hypothesized that the Flowers site would trap the most Coccinellidae due to it being the most ideal habitat for new larvae while also having large quantities of food and copious sheltering locations. It was also hypothesized that the Open Sun location would capture the least number of Coccinellidae as there is very little shelter and food while also leaving the beetles very exposed to predation. The evidence supported this hypothesis with 18 of the 45 Coccinellidae captured being from the Flowers location and only 4 being from the Open Sun site. A two-way ANOVA found a p value of 0.0174 making the results significant. This shows that Coccinellidae prefer to spend much of their time around flower beds due to it’d abundant resources.

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