''Exochomus quadripustulatus'', common name pine ladybird or pine lady beetle, is a species of beetle of the family
Coccinellidae
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 ...
.
[bugguide.net]
''Brumus quadripustulatus'' species information.[Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)]
/ref>[Encyclopedia of Life]
''Brumus quadripustulatus'' species overview. The distribution range of ''Exochomus quadripustulatus'' includes Europe, Northern Asia (excluding China), and North America.[
]
Description
''Exochomus quadripustulatus'' can reach a length of about 4-6 millimeters. It is almost circular, convex and shining, with a flange around the base. The color is quite variable and may change with ageing. Usually elytra are black with two larger red comma-shaped spots and two smaller red round or oval spots. The color of these spots can also be orange or yellow, but completely reddish brown specimens may occur. The pine ladybird in both adult and larval stages preys aphids
Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...
and scale insects
Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the ...
, especially ''Diaspidiotus perniciosus
The San Jose scale (''Quadraspidiotus perniciosus'') is a hemipterous insect in the family Diaspididae. It is an agricultural pest as it causes damage and crop losses to many fruit crops. In 1914, ''Q. perniciosus'' became the first documented ...
''. Adults overwinter.
Distribution
This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
, and in the Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
. It was first recorded in Ireland (County Armagh
County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...
) in 2014.<
Habitat
This fairly common ladybug can be found from April to October on conifers and in areas with deciduous trees, but it can also occur elsewhere.
Gallery
File:Exochomus quadripustulatus larva (8044902021).jpg, Larva
File:Exochomus quadripustulatus pupa (8044905726).jpg, Pupa
File:Newly emerged ladybird.jpg, Newly emerged adult
File:Coccinellidae - Exochomus quadripustulatus.JPG, Adult, reddish form
File:Exochomus quadripustulatus (Linnè, 1758) (30306392992).png
File:Exochomus-quadripustulatus-03-fws.jpg
References
External links
NCBI Taxonomy Browser, ''Brumus quadripustulatus''
Stippen.nl
Nature Spots
Bug Guide
El arbol de la vida
Further reading
* American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea, Arnett, R.H. Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida.
* American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico, Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
* Kovár, Ivo (1995). Revision of the Genera Brumus Muls. and Exochomus Redtb. (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of the Palaearctic Region. Part I. ''Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, vol. 44'', 5–124.
* Peterson Field Guides: Beetles, Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company.
* The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) of America North of Mexico, Robert D. Gordon. 1985. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, Vol. 93, No. 1.
* Vandenberg, Natalia J. / Arnett, Ross H. Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley, and J. H. Frank, eds. (2002). Family 93; Coccinellidae Latreille 1807. ''American Beetles, vol. 2; Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea'', 371–389.
Beetles of Europe
Coccinellidae
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Beetles described in 1758
{{Coccinellidae-stub