Our Lady's Lady Bird
by Br. John Samada, S.M
Our Lady's Bird is our Ladybug

Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

.        What insect has such a colorful and fascinating history as the ladybird, also known
more popularly as the ladybug?  In an age of faith when people realized earth mirroring
heaven, this tiny creature came to be understood to enjoy the special protection of the
Virgin Mary.  This small symbol of Our Lady burst into prominence as a protector of
people and their food supply.  As the enemy of aphids, the ladybird has rendered
service calculated in the billions of dollars in the past century alone.  We have good
reason to be grateful for this little beetle and to the Lady for whom it is named.


A problem of infestation

Agricultural specialists first became interested in the ladybug when California orange
groves were mercilessly attacked by a voracious insect pest in the latter half of the
nineteenth century.  Already in 1880 agricultural experts discovered that a parasitic
insect was infesting some orange trees in California’s Santa Clara Valley.  The
infestation was known locally as “San Jose scale.”  Eventually it was traced to the
flowering peach trees imported from China.  These trees were infected with tiny sap-
sucking insects until then unknown in the western world.  

The deadly visitor insect from Asia found the orange trees a delicious victim and
spread quickly.  They multiplied so rapidly that they became a mortal threat to the citrus
industry in all of California.  By 1893 horticulturalists were occasionally finding
specimens along the Atlantic seaboard.  Five years later the havoc wreaked by these
aphids was so grave that the German emperor forbade the importation of American
fruits and living plants.


Finding an antidote

In the meantime, the Department of Agriculture had its specialists launch a
counterattack.  They tried a variety of pesticides, but with little success.  Orange trees
were dying by the hundreds of thousands.

Mr. C. V. Riley, chief entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, suggested that
aphids could be controlled by introducing other insects which would prey on them.  In
1890 such a proposal seemed radical and preposterous, and drew scoffs even from
close associates.

But that did not daunt C. V. Riley.  Working against indifference and opposition, he was
determined to find a creature to attack the aphids devastating the citrus trees of the
nation.  He learned that aphids caused little harm in Australia, and concluded that
some natural enemy was keeping them under control.  

Mr. Albert Koebele was dispatched to discover that foe of plant lice.   He concluded
that a variety of the harmless ladybug beetle was the antidote.  Gathering ladybugs
from Australian plants by hand, Koebele shipped 140 of these plant-saving beetles to
an associate in Los Angeles.  When set free in an infested orange grove on trees
covered with gauze screens, the ladybug liberators cleared these trees of scale within
a few days.

More ladybugs were imported, and California scientists began to raise them in
wholesale quantities.  In California citrus groves they brought cottony-cushion scale
under control within two years.

Following this success, this variety of beetle was introduced to more than thirty
countries.  Without exception they reduced or eliminated that damage of scale insects
which infest citrus trees.

So dramatic and conclusive was the ladybird experiment that it marked a turning point
in scientific agriculture.  From that time hundreds of experiments have been made to
find insects which would control insect pests and noxious plants.  Economic
entomology, now a major operation in several countries, is an outgrowth of the ladybird
experiment to salvage California’s orange-growing business.

Significance of the name








The ladybird, or ladybug, rose to the rescue as the protector of the human food supply.  
Although this was a new role for the colorful beetle, the bright insect had been well
known for centuries.

How did it become known as “Our Lady’s Bird?”  No one seems to know exactly.  In
Elizabethan times many common creatures were attributed names with a sacred
association.  Such names were usually local in character.  In the case of the ladybird,
another factor came into play.  Not only was it a colloquial name employed in a few
areas of England, but it found its way into many languages in forms closely related.

In German the tiny critter was called Marienhuhn (Mary’s chicken), Marienkafer (Mary’s
beetle), and Marienwurmschen (Mary’s little worm).  Marienkuh was an earlier form
related to the English “lady-cow.”  The Swedes used the name Marias Nyckelpiga, and
the farmers still call the insect “the Virgin Mary’s golden hen.”  A slightly different tack is
taken in French and in Spanish.  In these languages the names link the insect with the
protection of God.  The French call it la bête a bon dieu (God’s animal), while the
Spanish use the name Vaquilla de Dios (God’s little cow).

Both coincidence and cultural exchange fall short in explaining so widespread a view
concerning an insect.  Scientific names in Latin are common to many nations and
languages.  But it is extraordinary for folk names to be so closely parallel.  Why should
people in so many different lands envision the ladybug as enjoying heavenly protection,
especially that of Mary?

Persons who have grown up in rural areas know that birds and animals almost always
leave the ladybird strictly alone, for the ladybird is created proficient in chemical
warfare.  It produces a yellowish fluid which it discharges in time of danger.  Though
seldom noticed by the blunted human sense of smell, this serum is highly repulsive to
foes of the ladybird.  Consequently the bright bug goes about its business with virtual
immunity from attack.

Amazed at the beetle’s sheltered and protected life, the human observers probably
concluded that it also enjoyed the special favor of the Lady whom we ourselves
venerate and whose assistance we seek.  It was natural to call the insect Ladybird.  
Perhaps also the people saw a similarity in the creature’s charmed life to the
preservation of Our Lady from sin.  In the England of that time the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception was prominently discussed.  English dialects included variant
titles like Lady-beetle, Lady-clock, and Lady-cow.  Standardization of speech erased
these names, and gradually the capitalization of the first letter was discontinued.  Now
only the scholarly reader continues to realize in this insect’s name a reference to
reverence and Marian relation.

Farmers of Elizabethan England may not have understood clearly the economic
significance of the ladybird, but they knew that it fed on other insects.  Hops, long a
major crop, are vulnerable to the attack of plant lice.  Ladybirds abound in hop fields.  
They were probably observed in action more closely than the lack of written
descriptions would indicate.  Not until 1861 did scientific records mention that
ladybirds feed on the aphids which infest hops.

Folk literature preserves some clues.  One is the fact that even today the children of
many lands know some form of this rhyme.
Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home!
Your house is on fire,
Your children do roam.
Except little Ann, who sits in a pan
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
Children recite that rhyme after a ladybird has been placed on an outstretched finger.  
This practice has changed little through the centuries as indicated by a woodcut which
dates from the reign of King George II.  The woodcut depicts a child addressing a
ladybird before flight.

Having more rhyme than reason, the jingle’s significance is clearer in view of its
historical setting.  Farmers often gathered hop plants and burned them when the
harvest was finished.  Ladybirds swarmed and children enjoyed warning the little birds
to flee from danger.  “Little Ann” was the name for a young grub of the ladybird attached
to a leaf and shedding its skin, or “weaving gold laces.”

An important function

When scientists determined that the ladybird is a natural foe of many plant parasites,
they began raising them in special insectaries, especially along the Pacific Coast of
the United States, since this region experienced the most devastating attacks by
aphids and scales.

Experts opine that the ladybird will never become obsolete and outlive its usefulness
for agriculture.  The life-saver beetle is more efficient for many operations that any
pesticide yet devised.  Those reared under natural conditions are more abundant and
important than those produced by insectaries.  In the United States alone at least 350
varieties have been identified.  The protective work of the ladybird is responsible for a
huge saving annually for the country’s farm economy.  Without it, growers would be at a
loss to produce substantial crops of needed fruits.

With no inkling of its significance in their own era or its future role in world agriculture,
medieval farmers reverently named the little beetle Our Lady’s Bird.  How appropriate
that the creature so named became a protector of our food supply and the symbol of a
branch of applied science.  Eyes of faith allow us to see that Our Lady’s Bird is in fact a
messenger from a provident God.    



Used with permission courtesy of
Br. John Samaha, S.M., Marianist Brother

                 
Ladybug photos, with
permission:
Irishviews.com
Legion of Mary - Diocese of Phoenix, AZ