Ladybirds as hunters, one species at a time.
Hidden Wings and Bloodlust is Rachel's podcast about ladybirds and ladybugs around the world. Many episodes focus on one species and take its Latin name, from Chilocorus cacti to Sospita vigintiguttata. Several open with a short dramatized scene from the beetle's world before moving on to habitat, prey, rarity and the sources behind them.
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Hidden Wings and Bloodlust spends all its time on ladybirds and ladybugs, and it treats them as predators. Many episodes follow a single species. The title gives the Latin name and then the common names, as with Sospita vigintiguttata, also called the Beautiful Ladybird, the Alder Ladybird and the 20-Spot Ladybird. These episodes often begin with a short piece of storytelling. One sends a hunter back into a gothic swamp near a castle. Another stays with a prickly pear in Death Valley as an invader and its hitchhikers close in. A third has a new New York mayor find a pale oval moving across his phone. The scenes are brief and a little theatrical, and they explain the second half of the show's name. After the scene, Rachel turns to careful natural history. She covers where a species lives, what it eats and when it can be seen. She cites sources such as the Wildlife Trust and the New York Heritage Programme and points to the full list in the show notes. Conservation keeps coming up. In New York, the nine-spotted ladybug is described as mostly limited to one site on Long Island. A friend of the show, Andy Berkey, reports much more stable populations near where he lives. History and human use come in as well. The cactus ladybug was introduced to South Africa in the late 1960s for biological control and never settled in well. Research on it as a predator of cochineal scale insects in Mexico leads to a detour on the dye and its link to the name Coccinella. Culture gets episodes of its own. In one called 'Ladybirds and Christianity', Rachel shares a devotional story about the ladybird's name and folklore that says killing one puts you in the Virgin Mary's bad books for nine days. That episode also mentions an earlier one on ladybirds and Judaism, and Tricia Arlen, a friend of the show who wrote a Jewish blessing for bugs. Guests bring in other angles. Ben Knowlton, a graduate student at the University of Kentucky who comes from the podcast There Will Be Bugs, talks her through metamorphosis, overwintering and the imaginal discs larvae have from hatching. That talk is looser than the scripted profiles and ends with Rachel asking whether she should stop recording. The archived Episode 1, on Coccinella septempunctata, lays out the plan: the what, where, how and why of ladybirds. It also includes Rachel's disclaimer that she is not an entomologist, plus the image of seven-spot larvae being dragged around by aphids several times their size. The humour is gentle and sometimes cheeky, and ladybird courtship has been promised as a topic. For the basics, start with that 7-spot episode. The cactus ladybug episode shows the full mix of story, science and history.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to learn about ladybirds one species at a time, from habitat and prey to rarity and folklore, and who enjoys some storytelling mixed in with the natural history.
What sets it apart: It stays with ladybirds and ladybugs instead of covering insects in general. Many species episodes open with a short dramatized scene from the beetle's world, then move on to sourced natural history, conservation notes and cultural history.
A podcast dedicated to ladybirds
One ladybird enters like a gothic villain; Rachel makes you check what lives on alder trees.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, focused look at how imaginal discs, winter timing, and energy conservation make metamorphosis a survival strategy.
Metamorphosis receives a careful, biology-forward treatment through Ben Knowlton's work on landscape pests and landscape ecology at the University of Kentucky.
A heat-tolerant cactus ladybug's survival story grows stranger once a parasitoid wasp enters the frame.
A cactus ladybug's life in Death Valley starts with a small, unnerving scene: feeding on a prickly pear for water and juices while an unseen invader closes in with hitchhikers.
A rare New York ladybug carries a compact story of ecological loss, unintended consequences, and cautious hope.
New York's state insect gets an unexpectedly cinematic entrance, with a small pale oval moving near the new mayor's phone before the story widens to the elusive nine-spotted ladybug.
A black-and-gold ladybird draws the episode into wet woodland, difficult habitats and the fragile balance shaped by flooding.
Sospita vigintigatata makes for an unusually atmospheric ladybird episode, opening on a black-coated insect with golden spots moving through swampy woodland. Its beauty is part of the pull, but so is its ability to vanish into the alder-rich wet habitat around it.
A curious look at how Christianity has imagined ladybirds as devotional creatures, lucky signs, predators, and sinners.
Ladybirds take on a surprisingly changeable religious life in this single-episode review. Rachel follows their place in Christianity from a devotional story that links the name ladybug to Mary, Jesus at a wedding, and water turned into wine, then moves into medieval manuscripts…
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Ben Knowlton of There Will Be Bugs talks through metamorphosis from the University of Kentucky, where he studies landscape pests and landscape ecology in his third year of graduate work.
Rachel centers Hidden Wings and Bloodlust episode 67 on Chilocorus cacti, the cactus ladybug, and its place among Chilocorini and Chilocorinae ladybirds.
Hidden Wings and Bloodlust episode 66 focuses on Coccinella novemnotata, the nine-spotted ladybug first described by Herbst in 1793.
Hidden Wings and Bloodlust episode 65 focuses on Sospita vigintigatata, a rare European ladybird also called the beautiful ladybird, the alder ladybird, and the 20-spotted ladybird.
Hidden Wings and Bloodlust Episode 64 follows ladybirds through Catholic devotion, including the seven joys and seven sorrows, the September 8–15 "little octave," and the seven-spot’s Marian symbolism.
Rachel introduces the seven-spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, as a familiar UK insect with a complex life cycle.
Rachel's episode 63 of Hidden Wings and Bloodlust profiles Adalia decempunctata, whose colour forms (spotted, checkered, dark) make it easy to confuse with the two-spot, 14-spot and harlequin.
Armando Rosario Lebrón says some niche insect specialists may be among only four experts worldwide, so job losses can remove hard-to-replace knowledge.
A herpetologist discusses the implications of a new piece of legislation on native reptiles and amphibians.
An interview with a survivor of the 1976 ladybird invasion, blending entomology with personal history.
An interview with researchers about ladybird species in Palestine, discussing a study that rediscovered a species and highlighting regional biodiversity.
The host interviews Helen Day about her website dedicated to vintage ladybird books, exploring their cultural impact.