I found this beautiful ladybug crawling while I was planting some geraniums. I've never seen a ladybug that was this color before. It doesn't totally show up in the brightly lit photo, but the bug was exactly the color of dark chocolate. You can see the faintest impression of spots. She moved too quickly to get a better photo, nor to let me count her spots. So, best as I can tell, she's some variant of the Nine-spotted Ladybug Beetle (Coccinella novemnotata).
"If we are to have peace on earth ... our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967
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