Agile on Yellow. Harmonia axyridis, Harlequin Ladybird, on Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You have to be quite agile to traverse the umbels of fragant Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, with its tiny flowers. And indeed that's just what our Ladybird, a true Harlequin in color and movement, is.
'Harmonia' is clear in meaning but 'axyridis' perhaps is a bit more difficult. It refers to Russian Pigweed, Axyris amaranthoides, which occurs in the Asian Far East, whence our Ladybird originally before it invaded Europe. 'Axyridis' is grammatically the genitive of 'axyris', which comes from the Greek ἀξυρής and means something like 'blunt', 'non-cutting'. Why this Pigweed came by that scientific name I don't know. So our Agile Beetle is: Balanced Ladybird partial to Russian Pigweed.
Agile on Yellow. Harmonia axyridis, Harlequin Ladybird, on Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You have to be quite agile to traverse the umbels of fragant Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, with its tiny flowers. And indeed that's just what our Ladybird, a true Harlequin in color and movement, is.
'Harmonia' is clear in meaning but 'axyridis' perhaps is a bit more difficult. It refers to Russian Pigweed, Axyris amaranthoides, which occurs in the Asian Far East, whence our Ladybird originally before it invaded Europe. 'Axyridis' is grammatically the genitive of 'axyris', which comes from the Greek ἀξυρής and means something like 'blunt', 'non-cutting'. Why this Pigweed came by that scientific name I don't know. So our Agile Beetle is: Balanced Ladybird partial to Russian Pigweed.