''Aiolocaria hexaspilota'' is a

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

species from the

lady beetle Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

family (Coccinellidae); adults can be as large as 13mm long. The species’ scientific name was first given in an 1831 publication by

Frederick William Hope Frederick William Hope (3 January 1797 – 15 April 1862) was an English clergyman, naturalist, collector, and entomologist, who founded a professorship at the University of Oxford to which he gave his entire collections of insects in 1849 (now ...

.Joel K. Hallan
Synopsis of the described Coleoptera of the World
, 6 June 2010. Accessed 19 May 2014. Unaware of its previous identification,

Victor Motschulsky Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky (sometimes Victor von Motschulsky, russian: link=no, Виктор Иванович Мочульский, 11 April 1810, in St. Petersburg – 5 June 1871, in Simferopol) was a Russian entomologist mainly interested in ...

was later to call the same species as ''Aiolocaria mirabilis'' (in 1860). In most cases of such synonymy, according to the

Encyclopedia of Life The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of non ...

, “the first name takes priority and is considered to be the valid or accepted name.”
Aiolocaria hexaspilota
',

. Accessed 17 May 2014. Entomologists Ivo HodekIvo Hodek
Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic. Accessed 19 May 2014. (Czech Institute of Entomology) and Edward W. EvansEdward (Ted) W. Evans
, College of Science, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Accessed 19 May 2014. (

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

) describe the species as “a specialized predator of chrysomelids.”Ivo Hodek, Edward W. Evans (2012) “Food relationships,” pp. 141-274, in I. Hodek, H. F. van Emden, A. Honěk (eds): ''Ecology and Behaviour of the Ladybird Beetles (Coccinellidae)'', West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. , page 167. Entomologist G. I. Savoiskaya has observed ''Aiolocaria hexaspilota'' actively pursuing larval prey.G. I. Savoiskaya (1970). “Coccinellids of the Alma-Ata reserve” in ‘’Trudy Alma-Atin. Gos. Zapov.’’ 9: pp. 163–187. (In Russian), cited in ''Ecology and Behaviour of the Ladybird Beetles (Coccinellidae),'' page 221. Ivo Hodek has also described the species as

univoltine Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

(having one brood per year); in early autumn they migrate from sun-exposed forest habitat “to well-insolated slopes of rocky hills or also to buildings.” Seeking winter shelter in rocky crevices or, opportunistically, in human dwellings, the beetles will cluster in aggregations of up to several hundred individuals. Hodek notes that by clustering together they maintain a temperature “much higher than ambient” and that in the spring the adults mate and disperse.''Ecology and Behaviour of the Ladybird Beetles (Coccinellidae),'' page 311.

References

Coccinellidae Taxa named by George Robert Crotch Monotypic Cucujiformia genera Coccinellidae genera {{Coccinellidae-stub