''Hippodamia tredecimpunctata'', commonly known as the thirteen-spot ladybeetle, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 ...

Description

Adult ''H. tredecimpunctata'' have domed backs, mainly oval, often shiny with short legs and antennae. They have two wing covers. They are usually red to orange in color. This species has thirteen dark or black spots. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e are slightly flattened and covered with miniature spines. Very small eggs are laid in groups of 10–50 on the undersides of leaves.

Range

The species is distributed throughout much the northern hemisphere-Europe, North Africa, European Russia, the Caucasus, Siberia, the Russian Far East, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Middle Asia, Western Asia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, North America. In North America, it can be found in Canada and the northern United States. The relative abundance of this species in North America has been associated with the introduction of the non-native coccinellid '' Coccinella septempunctata''.

Habitat

It is a stenotypic (limited habitat) species most associated with wet meadows, lakesides, flood plains and river deltas, marshes, and in marshes and marshy alder thickets, carr and bodden on '' Carex'', '' Sparganium'', ''

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in London ...

'', and on Salix''

Biology

It feeds on '' Aphis farinosa'' and occurs on grasses and sedges associated with '' Sipha glyceriae'' and on aphids associated with Gramineae,

Umbelliferae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

, and some other plants It also feeds on Erysiphales on reeds, before the emergence of aphidsSavoiskaya, G.I., Coccinellid Larvae (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of the Fauna of the USSR (Nauka, Leningrad Branch, Leningrad, 1983) (''Keys to the Fauna of the USSR'', Published by the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, No. 137)

n Russian N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

It has also found on cane, rotten hay, detritus, and under peeled-off bark. Image:Hippodamia_tredecimpunctata_larva.jpg, Larva Image:Hippodamia_tredecimpunctata_02.jpg, Adult

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1258267 Coccinellidae Insects used as insect pest control agents Biological pest control beetles Beetles described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus