General Discussion

[quote name="RoxieWST" date="2023-12-13 15:45:26" ] Asian lady beetles!! They mimic ladybugs [...] ...no, those are not ladybugs. [/quote] They are ladybugs. And ladybugs are lady beetles. These words, and ladybird, are all used for every species of Coccinellid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae And yeah, Asian lady beetles are way too common and much too morphic. Do they all have this M-pattern on their thorax and are they the only species to do so? Edit: Nevermind, they don't. Waaaay too morphic.

Rainbow trout are invasive in my state, fortunately they taste delicious.

[quote name="Xionahri" date="2023-12-13 15:56:35" ] [quote name="RoxieWST" date="2023-12-13 15:45:26" ] Asian lady beetles!! They mimic ladybugs [...] ...no, those are not ladybugs. [/quote] They are ladybugs. And ladybugs are lady beetles. These words, and ladybird, are all used for every species of Coccinellid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae And yeah, Asian lady beetles are way too common and much too morphic. Do they all have this M-pattern on their thorax and are they the only species to do so? Edit: Nevermind, they don't. Waaaay too morphic. [/quote] Yes, they are from the same family. Asian lady beetles and the ladybugs I was referring to (coccinella) are ladybugs, but not the same ones. Different genus, different morphus, different behavior. The infographic I used refers to the specific coloration that thrives near me, not the species as a whole. Posting images of ones anomalous to my area defeats the point of this thread. Thank you for wanting to be more precise and educational, though. @webcreep same here! I live in a state notorious for fishing, so our government has a program that regularly brings rainbow trout to our waters. I'm not into fishing, but I'd be more than happy to prepare rainbow trout for the dining table [emoji=aether happy size=1]

Apparently "Feral Hogs" are invasive in my state? I'm curious to learn more about that! Also, many plants & insects! Not as many fish(?).

@RoxieWST

Ah, that wasn't clear to me from the text. Thanks for explaining. You only got one morph? Lucky!

Sosnowsky's hogweed and Chinese sleeper are the ones that come to mind immediately. The first one is quite dangerous as it burns the skin and it's really hard to get rid of, and the other is an absolute disaster if it gets into small water body, this fish just eats EVERYTHING, then they eat each other, and then nothing is left. It's edible and even tasty, but it ruins the ecosystem greatly. I've seen this happen to the pond near my gran's house, it's really sad. People tried to fix it by adding normal species back but the sleepers killed them all off again in a couple of years (while they couldn't do anything to large fishes, they ate the eggs and little ones so the other species eventually died off).

interesting to learn about the ladybugs, haven't seen one out in the wild in years but i definately have seen those harlequin ones (the asian lady beetles mentioned but i think this is a more fun name) in our house before. now that i know over 6k ladybugs exist i'll have to keep an eye out for spotty beetles. sounds like the 7 spotted variant is invasive (though deliberately introduced) so that infographic posted earlier is only good for europe and maybe west asia? they're pretty much everywhere at this point im not sure what the original range would've been. 9 spotted ladybugs are ok though if you live in america but declined a lot in population so please count the spots if you're going to squish them for whatever reason.

@LeeXeno
Hogs were brought by colonizers who tended to let their animals roam free. Oftentimes, they would have to leave their settlements on short notice and left their livestock behind. Due to their adaptability and high reproduction rate, the domestic hogs survived and went feral. Hogs are not to be confused with peccaries, which are native to Texas (I'm guessing that's the state you're referring to?).

[quote name="Honeyfoot" date="2023-12-14 11:44:09" ] @/LeeXeno Hogs were brought by colonizers who tended to let their animals roam free. Oftentimes, they would have to leave their settlements on short notice and left their livestock behind. Due to their adaptability and high reproduction rate, the domestic hogs survived and went feral. Hogs are not to be confused with peccaries, which are native to Texas (I'm guessing that's the state you're referring to?). [/quote] @Honeyfoot Sadly, no, I live more towards the Great Lakes! There are lots of forests and farmland up here.