Ladybug

I found a whole bunch of these ladybugs on our walk yesterday. Some were multi-spotted, some had no spots, some were orange, some red. I'm not sure if they are cute. There were about 50 of them on a thistle plant. I looked them up and think they are Asian lady beetles. The website below says: "The multicolored Asian lady beetle Harmonia axyridis Pallas was introduced from Asia both purposefully for classical biological control of arthropod pests and accidently into the United States many times during the twentieth century. It finally became established and quickly spread over the entire United States sometime in the late 1980's and early 1990's." Another import!http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/beneficial/multicolored_asian_lady_beetle.htm What has happened to all of our native species? It seems every wildflower or bug I look up is exotic! I wondered if this beetle is displacing our native ladybug. It turns out it is! A great article is at http://pushnow.typepad.com/berkshires/2006/04/ladybug_ladybug.html : a blog from "Walking the Berkshires" titled "Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home!" I suppose all of our ecosystems will need to adjust to accomodate these new introductions. I wonder if what were many individual native eco-communities may become more like a single global ecosystem?