For fun I’ve been sporadically draping Marinette’s dreamscape gala dress from @buggachat’s BEAU, and today when I set it up on my half dress form a little beetle flew onto it. For a solid three minutes I got very excited because I thought it was a ladybug.
It is not, in fact a ladybug.
This is Gertrude. She is an ‘Asian Beetle’. The internet tells me that they’re a bit more hostile and smelly than your average ladybug. So far she has been quite polite.
She has more spots than a ladybug does (and thus she does not match the dress).
Anyway, Gertrude has been safely relocated and is hanging out with me while I type. We’re buds now. I have no idea how she got into my house. It’s been years since I’ve run into a ladybug or an Asian beetle inside. She was a nice little surprise.
It's so interesting how they go from egg, to larva, to pupa, and finally turn into a ladybug! (in this case it's a lady beetle, a bit more aggressive than the ladybug).
[video description: a closeup of an arm as seen by the person it belongs to, with an asian lady beetle standing on the wrist. As the beetle climbs along the forearm toward the wrist, the arm moves to keep it in gram. A softly voiced voiceover sings:
“There’s a little guy, crawling up my arm. There’s a little guy, I won’t do him harm! S’just a little guy, don’t know where he’s been. But he’s gonna climb, right across my skin.”
By the time the song ends the beetle has stopped its trek, stretching and wiggling its legs in place. /end description]