Ladybird attack

I've always thought of ladybirds as being rather pretty and on the whole, quite friendly looking. Although I realised that they were a) poisonous and b) predatory (and are therefore good for your rose bushes), I haven't ever considered how they might look if you were a few centimetres high. However, I found this image of a ladybird munching on an aphid quite disturbing.

And the larvae are just as scary, in a sort of Zen Buddist/praying mantis/alien invader sort of way.There's currently quite a bit of interest in ladybirds, as they are important for natural biocontrol of pests, which affects not only roses, but also the whole ecosystem of insects, pollinators and disease vectors. The images above were taken from the website for Rothamsted Research, where there's a project looking into the threat to native ladybirds posed by invading species. Humans aren't the only ones to kill their own kind.