Coccinella transversalis (aka Lady Beetle)

Location: Calwell District Playing Fields

^{Be sure to click on the image to view full screen!}

Category	Macro Photography
Settings	ISO 250 36mm f/8 1/60 sec
Camera	Nikon D3400
Lens	Nikon AF-P Nikkor DX 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G VR
Location	Canberra, Australia

Here I go again, learning something new every day...

While preparing my post for today, I had one of those wonderful experiences where one tiny little door opens up into an entire ~~room~~ library, full of new knowledge.

My initial thought was that I would have no chance of identifying my beetle any further than to say that it was, in fact, a lady beetle. So, I was super impressed to find this website called Ladybirds of Australia and even more impressed to find photographs that I was able to use for identification.

The site is a project of ANIC (Australian National Insect Collection)

The gallery contains many, many photos of various shell patterns of all the different beetles and I was quite surprised to find that I was very quickly able to find a match on page 2 with image number 39.

Genus: Coccinella
Species: C. transversalis

Following links on ANIC (linked above) led me through to another website named Atlas of Living Australia where I was able to create a profile and submit the details of my sighting, including an image to their knowledge base.

In addition to creating a profile, I also found their volunteer portal at DigiVol where you can (as stated on their home page) "decipher our collections, discover hidden archives and contribute to knowledge, joining a community of 1000+ volunteers.

In only a few hours, I've already contributed 2 tasks to a project, being the transcription of labels relating to Australian horse fly expedition 17 collection.

Anyhoo, it appears I've found one more 'thing' to add to my to-do list...?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post,
I really do appreciate your time.