I finally ran out of presentable photos from my quick process batch, so this photo is a GIMP product. It was pretty straightforward, other than trying to knock down that glare. I eased into it and didn’t try to push it to far.

Regarding our subject, these are rather big as lady beetles go, at least in my own personal experience. I’ve only seen them two or three times and always on the fence in the yard, which is situated near pine and spruce trees. Incidentally, also on the fence, I’ve seen on occasion these drab non-descript aphids that I think feed off the conifer trees. According to BugGuide.net, these lady beetles feed on aphids especially in trees. So there you go.

A final note: that little fuzz in the blur of the background? It’s a little piece of fuzz or debris. More interestingly, it appears to be caught on a curving gouge in the beetle’s elytron. We’ll have to revisit that in a later post.