Scarce seven-spotted ladybird

Coccinella magnifica

''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.
Coccinella magnifica - Larva, portrait For more info and different viewing angles see with this image: https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105873/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_lateral.html Coccinella,Coccinella magnifica,Coccinellidae,Coccinellinae,Coleoptera,Geotagged,Larva,Netherlands,Scarce seven-spot ladybird,Scarce seven-spotted ladybird,nl: Bosmierlieveheersbeestje,nl: Schitterend lieveheersbeestje

Distribution

It is present in Great Britain, where it is scarce in southern England.
Coccinella magnifica - Larva, lateral This single photo shows just about all details needed to recognize that this is the larva of a Scarce seven-spot, not the ubiquitous normal Seven-spot ladybird beetle. 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. In general, for most species there will always be some individual larvae that are aberrant in one of the "main" keying features :-/ Some more viewing angles and details of the same larva: https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105877/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_dorsolateral.html https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105874/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_dorsal.html https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105875/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_portrait.html https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105876/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_details.html Coccinella,Coccinella magnifica,Coccinellidae,Coccinellinae,Coleoptera,Geotagged,Larva,Netherlands,Scarce seven-spot ladybird,Scarce seven-spotted ladybird,nl: Bosmierlieveheersbeestje,nl: Schitterend lieveheersbeestje

Behavior

A single larvae will eat about 400 medium size aphids during its development to pupal stage. An adult will eat about 300 aphids before it lays its eggs. Approximately 3 to 10 aphids are eaten for each egg laid, and a female will lay from 50 to 300 eggs in her lifetime. More than 5000 aphids may be eaten by a single adult ladybug in its lifetime. The scarce 7-spot is often found along with nests of wood ants.
Coccinella magnifica - Larva, dorsolateral For more info and different viewing angles see with this image: https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105873/coccinella_magnifica_-_larva_lateral.html Coccinella,Coccinella magnifica,Coccinellidae,Coccinellinae,Coleoptera,Geotagged,Larva,Netherlands,Scarce seven-spot ladybird,Scarce seven-spotted ladybird,nl: Bosmierlieveheersbeestje,nl: Schitterend lieveheersbeestje

Habitat

This beetle, and its larvae, inhabits a niche in the environment of nests of the ferocious Wood ants (Formica rufa agg.), where other Ladybirds are more readily scared off by the ants.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

More info: http://www.formicidae.be/bosmieren_lhb.htm
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderColeoptera
FamilyCoccinellidae
GenusCoccinella
SpeciesC. magnifica
Photographed in
Netherlands