Picture source
Nice way to honor Our Lady on her day.
by 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 saw earth mirroring heaven, this tiny creature was thought
to enjoy the special protection of the Virgin Mary. Reversing its role in the last two centuries,
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?
Here is the most reasonable
guess. Persons who have grown up in
rural areas know that birds and animals almost always leave the ladybird
strictly alone, for the ladybird is 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 enjoyed the
special favor of the Lady whom they themselves venerated and whose assistance
they sought. It seemed natural to call
the insect Ladybird. One might also
conjecture that 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 a
popular belief and 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 find in this insect’s name a reference to earlier 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.
