Harmonia axyridis - Aggregating A

In fall Harlequin ladybirds try to find a good shelter for winter and form huge aggregations. Here are a few groups that aggregated behind the shutters of a mansion in the Dutch Hoge Veluwe district. A few fairly small groups behind every shutter, but at least around a thousand beetles in total.
Here's another one of the groups:

comments (2)

Christine Young

Lion

Beautiful variety! We used to get large groups of them gathered on our windows in the winter, but I haven't seen them do this for many years now. Posted 5 years ago
1. Pudding4brains
  
  Lion
  
  It would seem that there is quite some variance in where they aggregate every year - may well be dependent on wind and other weather conditions. They do seem to prefer white/pale structures ... Posted 5 years ago

The Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

"Harmonia axyridis", most commonly known as the harlequin, multicoloured Asian, or Asian ladybeetle, is a large coccinellid beetle. This is one of the most variable species in the world, with an exceptionally wide range of colour forms.

Info 130 1

Similar species: Beetles

Species identified by Pudding4brains