The genus ''Cryptolaemus'' consists of

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

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 ...

s 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 ...

, whose larvae and adults mostly prey upon

scale insect 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 ...

s on ornamental plants. There are seven species in the genus, in two groups, all originally from eastern Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia.A review of the genus ''Cryptolaemus'' (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) with particular reference to the species resembling ''C. montrouzieri'' Mulsant
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Species

*''

Cryptolaemus montrouzieri ''Cryptolaemus montrouzieri'', common name mealybug ladybird or mealybug destroyer, is a ladybird species. Etymology Étienne Mulsant described ''C. montrouzieri'', naming the new species after a Marist brother and missionary, Abbe Montrouzi ...

'' Mulsant, 1850 (plus six poorly known species)

References

* * Coccinellidae Coccinellidae genera Taxa named by Étienne Mulsant {{Coccinellidae-stub