''Aphidecta obliterata'', commonly known as the larch ladybird, or larch ladybug, is a species of

Coccinellidae Coccinellidae () is a widespread family (biology), family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in the United Kingdom; "lady" refers to Mary, mother of Jesus, mother Mary. Entomologists use the ...

, a flying beetle.

Varietas

Varietas include: * ''Aphidecta obliterata var. fenestrata'' Weise * ''Aphidecta obliterata var. illigeri'' Weise * ''Aphidecta obliterata var. livida'' Dejean * ''Aphidecta obliterata var. pallida'' Thunberg * ''Aphidecta obliterata var. sexnotata'' Thunberg

Distribution

This species is present in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, European

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

.N. B. Nikitsky and А. S. Ukrainsky, 201
The Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of Moscow Province
ISSN 0013-8738, ''Entomological Review'', 2016, Vol. 96, No. 6, pp. 710–735 ISSN 0013-8738Fauna europaea
/ref>

Description

''Aphidecta obliterata'' can reach approximately a size of . These tiny beetles have an elongate oval body, with strongly convex elytra, smooth, shiny and densely, finely punctured. Head shows a black arch-shaped marking. Antennae are club-shaped, with 9-11 segments. The ''larch ladybirds'' are beetles with a great variability in color and markings, with several varietas. For example ''Aphidecta obliterata v. fenestrata'' has entirely black elytra, while usually they range from tan to brown, often with a pink tinge. They have a dark suture and usually a dark oblique line posteriorly. The pronotum is beige, with four dark brown lines forming a M mark. While other species of ladybugs have prominent spots, this insect has smaller, less distinct spots, or small blotches, if any.

Habitat

''Aphidecta obliterata'' inhabits high bogs an peat areas, mainly coniferous and mixed forests (for instance

Central European mixed forests The Central European mixed forests ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0412) is a temperate hardwood forest covering much of northeastern Europe, from Germany to Russia. The area is only about one-third forested, with pressure from human agriculture leaving the r ...

Sarmatic mixed forests The Sarmatic mixed forests constitute an ecoregion within the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature classification (ecoregion PA0436). The term comes from the word " Sarmatia". Distribution This ...

) and, ''especially'', in ''

Pinus sylvestris ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, or European red pine is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native plant, native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly s ...

'' and other temperate needleleaf forests. It is found occasionally in gardens and parks. It is mainly found on ''

'' and other ''Pinus'' species and ''

Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, ...

'' and on ''

Larix decidua ''Larix decidua'', the European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains, with small disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland. Its life span has been confirmed to be clos ...

'' occasionally under flakes of bark, under bark, or in moss on the trunks.

Biology

These beetles have a restricted range of adaptability to changes in ecological conditions. They are aphidophagous, mainly feeding on Lachnidae,

Adelgidae The Adelgidae are a small family of the Hemiptera closely related to the aphids, and often included in the Aphidoidea with the Phylloxeridae or placed within the superfamily Phylloxeroidea as a sister of the Aphidoidea within the infraorder ...

and other aphids of pines. The adults can be found in spring and summer. They overwinter in bark crevices and in litter. It has been released in the US and Canada for biocontrol of ''

Adelges piceae The balsam woolly adelgid (''Adelges piceae'') is small wingless insect that infests and kills firs. In their native Europe they are a minor parasite on silver fir and Sicilian fir, but they have become a threat especially to balsam fir and ...

''.T.S. Bellows, T.W. Fisher, L.E. Caltagirone, D.L. Dahlsten, G. Gordh and C.B. Huffake
Handbook of Biological Control: Principles and Applications of Biological Control
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Variability of ''Aphidecta obliterata''

File: Aphidecta obliterata (Larch ladybird) - Flickr - S. Rae (6).jpg, Dark brown form File: Coccinellidae - Aphidecta obliterata-001.JPG, Tan color form File:Aphidecta obliterata (Larch ladybird) - Flickr - S. Rae (8).jpg, Yellow form File: Aphidecta obliterata (2129829672).jpg, Melanic morph

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q763836 Coccinellidae Beetles described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus