Coccinella magnifica - Larva, dorsolateral

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comments (4)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

This entire series is stunning! Posted 2 months ago
1. Pudding4brains
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks Ferdy - been sitting on HDD since 2015 or so, but always wanted to sit down and work out all the ID-issues I have with Coccinella and Hippodamia (s.l.) larvae and all the various keys that all contradict each other or even themselves internally. That bit (grinding through all the keys and tripping over exceptions that prove couplets "wrong"/iffy in my own images or those available on the internet), is proving very VERY time consuming :-/ Posted 2 months ago, modified 2 months ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    If they are this difficult, does it also mean that many are misidentified online? Posted 2 months ago
  2. 1. Pudding4brains
      
      Lion
      
      Absolutely. Basically the larva of the ubiquitous 7-spot (Coccinella septempunctata) is quite iffy to separate from Coccinella magnifica, Coccinella undecempuntata and the larvae of various sp. in the old "Hippodamia s.l." (incl. current Ceratomegilla etc.). Most people don't realize this and just paste "7-spot" on anything that looks similar. Of course, most of the time that is correct, just because it is the most common species of the bunch by far.
      Mature larvae are somewhat "doable", but especially the immature larvae of the 7-spot can be very easily confused with the smaller Coc.und. and Hip.var.
      This larva, that I take to be Coc.mag. (I didn't see it through to adulthood unfortunately) does not 100% conform to what most keys say: The brush in the lower, outside, hind corner of the metathorax is mostly keyed out as being "black" for Coc.sep. and yellow/orange for Coc.mag. Here the foot is orange but the brush itself is still blackish. Other features of the larva, the pale total aspect and the very widely "split" sclerites on the thorax make me confident that this should be Coc.mag. and there are other images around of Coc.mag. with a slightly blackisch hind lateral brush on the metathorax, but it one of the reasons I had been holding this one back. Posted 2 months ago, modified 2 months ago

The Scarce seven-spotted ladybird

''Coccinella magnifica'', also known as the scarce seven-spot ladybird, is a species of beetle in the family Coccinellidae. Both the adults and larvae are predators. They are known for their diet of aphids, but will eat many other pests such as soft-scale insects, spider mites, mealybugs, and the eggs of many others.

Info 5 0

Similar species: Beetles

Species identified by Pudding4brains