Among the many insects I don't know particularly well, Ladybugs, which are, of course, not true bugs but beetles, are all too prominent on the ignorance list. To be sure, I know almost instantly that the insect I'm observing belongs to the Beetle family Coccinellidae, but beyond that, I'm pretty much lost. Fortunately, Ladybugs have a large following, and there are plenty of great online resources available, including the splendid Lost Ladybug Project, based at Cornell, with lots of identification information to help citizen scientists get involved in documenting shifting populations and searching for coccinellids in decline, even missing in action. This is not, I learned fairly fast, once of the rare "ladybirds," as the beetles are also known. By my count, this one has 17 spots, and that tally, along with the shape and color of the decoration on its pronotum, puts it in the Harlequin Ladybug category. Harmonia axyridis in an import from Asia, brought here as a biological control, and probably, alas, much too comfortable... and prolific... in its adopted home.