
Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata vs Harmonia axyridis f. succinea
This is a bit of an oddball ID help. The 22-spot ladybird (bottom row) is much (MUCH!) smaller than the Harlequin, but the succinea form of the latter (top row) can be quite pale yellowish (normally orange or red) and the Psyllobora (normally bright yellow) can be a bit more orangy too, so in the end both are "pale with many spots" and we _do_ get them confused on waarneming.nl when photographers upload their images and forget what size the beetle was they photographed :o)
Left: Har.axy. succinea usually has the "M" (or "W" if you will) shaped markings on the pronotum (as seen centre above), but in fact this is a "paw print" pattern with the dots fused. On not so heavily marked specimen the paw print shows, but it's a quite different pattern from the paw print on the 22-spot - most easily recognized by the center of the base remaining open until the pattern is so washed out that it covers almost the entire pronotum (in which case there is no confusion with a 22-spot anyway), whereas on the Psyllobora the center of the base has a heavy black mark from the very start.
Also note that the markings on the head are quite different, but these rarely show well enough on average photos.
Center & Right: Psy.vig. has 22 spots, Har.axy. succinea 19 maximum (when all are present), The difference is the first row of spots having two on Har.axy. and three on Psy.vig. and in the second row Psy.vig. has an extra (half) spot right on the margin of the elytra. Also the angles the spots make are quite different on both. To make up for the spots Har.axy. is missing here it has a "scutular spot" around the scutellum that is missing in Psy.vig. Such a scutular spot is always counted as one spot even if it is strictly speaking divided over the two elytra.
Plica: Har.axy. normally has a fold (plica) on the end of the elytra (very rarely missing). Psy.vig. never has this.
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comments (3)
I have many more old collages like this so I will add them here when I stumble on them again - it's a good place for them, so thank you for that :o) Posted 7 years ago