Ladybugs love their leafy greens
By Krishna Ramanujan |September 28, 2020 Most predators obtain a balanced diet from their prey, but Cornell researchers recently discovered that in the case of aphid-eating ladybugs, the rule doesn’t apply. That’s because a diet consisting solely of aphids lacks an essential nutrient –sterols, like cholesterol – which all male animals need to make sperm, hormones, and to maintain cell health. As a result, farm-friendly aphid-eating ladybugs supplement their diets with sterol-rich leafy greens. “We showed that a large group of predacious lady beetles eat leaves to obtain sterols,” said…
Read More