New York times, Nov, 24,2011-It is not just any bug, but the native nine-spotted ladybug.
And its reappearance is something of a relief, because it is the official New York State insect,
even though the last recorded sighting of it in New York was 29 years ago.
     Its absence had not gone completely unnoticed. There was a moment in 2006 when the State
Assembly, realizing that the state insect had left the state, tried to replace it with a different species
of ladybug, an attempt that fortunately gave in to law.
     And now-after all these years-the state insect has been found. Like so many other New Yorkers,
it was seen summering in Amagansett. Peter Priolo, a volunteer participant in an effort called the
Lost Ladybug Project, found the ladybug on July 30 in a patch of sunflowers during a group search
he had organized.
     "I didn't realize it was a nine-spotted when I found it," Mr. Priolo said. He was on his way to do
an end-of-the-day ladybug record, so, he said, "I put it in my jar and hurried back to meet with
everybody."
     If the ladybugs are making a comeback, it is only beginning. The lost Ladybug Project started
surveys in 2000. As of 2006, only five nene-spotted ladybugs had been found in North America in
the previous 10 years, none of them in the East. Then one lone ladybug was found in Arlington,
Va. None had been found in the East since, and only 90 have been reported in North America.
     After scientists at Cornell confirmed Mr. Priolo's find, they went to the Amagansett farm in
mid-August to lead a search that turned up about 20 more of the bugs. An area between rows of
carrots and beans turned out to be a hot spot. "We found a lot of them on cosmos and zinnias," said
Dr. Losey said, an insect expert. The farm is part of the 10,000-acre Peconic Land Trust in Amagansett,
and it is organic. For ladybugs, Dr. Losey said, "you couldn't design a better place."
     Dr. Losey wants to find out if it makes sense to reintroduce this strain of the ladybug in other areas.
And he expects volunteers to be back out in the field when ladybug season starts again in the spring.
Now, he said, "we need to find out more places where there are just as many."