''Naemia seriata'', commonly known as the seaside lady beetle, is a large coccinellid

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 ...

native to North America, and the only species in the genus ''Naemia''. It is found in coastal areas such as beaches, salt marshes, and bay islands on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and Pacific coast. This beetle is light brown, yellow, orange, or red in color, with large black spots, often connected along the sides. The

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

usually has one large central black spot, which is occasionally split into two spots. The body of this species is elongately oval in shape, and between 4 and 6.7mm in length. The two subspecies can be distinguished by markings on the head, with the head of ''N. seriata seriata'' being black, while the head of ''N. seriata litigiosa'' has a pale triangular marking. ''Naemia seriata seriata'' is primarily distributed across Eastern North America, while ''N. seriata litigiosa'' is restricted to the American Southwest. The seaside lady beetle may be confused for the spotted pink ladybeetle, ''

Coleomegilla maculata ''Coleomegilla maculata'', commonly known as the spotted lady beetle, pink spotted lady beetle or twelve-spotted lady beetle, is a large coccinellid beetle native to North America. The adults and larvae feed primarily on aphids and the species ...

'', which is much more common, and is not restricted to coastal areas. The apical pair of spots on the elytra as well as the pronotum markings are merged in ''N. seriata'', and distinctly separate in ''C. maculata''.Adalia, Field Guide to Ladybugs of the US and Canada
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References

Coccinellidae Beetles described in 1847 Taxa named by Frederick Ernst Melsheimer {{beetle-stub