Picture attached. I have many of these all over my lavender in Los Angeles. They don't seem to be eating the leaves, but I was wondering if they were bad for the plant otherwise.
I think they may be too big -- they're about 1/2 inch long. We could use some ladybugs around here as the aphids are going crazy on the rose bushes.
I agree with the Ladybug ID. Size can vary by species & the 'mature' larvae of insects are often larger than the the adults
Ah! Well that's all good news! Thanks for the help. It makes sense b/c adult ladybugs love to hang out on lavender come summer BTW, I just noticed that there are smaller all-black ones on the plant too. Are these the immature larvae?
The others might be a different ladybird(bug) species, there are 40 odd in the UK, so I'd be surprised if there weren't lots where you are. Lucky you! Both the larva and the adults eat aphids, as well as the adults being rather endearing little things.
It looks like I have several varieties from this photo array http://images.google.com/images?q=ladybug+larvae
Splendid! I was looking for something like this, but keep forgetting about Google images. I've only ever seen one or two larva, so wasn't sure how much variation there might be among species. Do let us know what sorts you've got when you can identify them, please.
