Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1781: 97. (=Coccinella epanda hunberg, 1781)

Transverse ladybird

Length 3.8-6.7 mm, width 3.3-5.5 mm. Form elongate oval, convex. Head black with a pair of creamy yellow, subtriangular frontal spots, one on either side of inner margins of eyes. Pronotum black, anterolateral corners light cream. Scutellum black. Elytra bright carmine red or orange or yellow, with an oval subscutellar spot, a large trilobed spot on humeral callus, a transverse band at apical third not reaching lateral margin, and three smaller apical spots-one sutural and two lateral, usually fused to form a transverse marking; sutural line with an irregular black stripe. Elytral pattern variable with the markings in various states of confluence or reduction. Post-coxal plates on abdominal ventrite 1 incomplete, with an associate oblique line. Female spermatheca (Fig. 1) and male genitalia (Figs. 2-3) as illustrated.

 Figs. 1-3. Coccinella transversalis F.: 1. Spermatheca, female; 2-3. Male genitalia

     

   

One of the most common coccinellids of the region, found almost throughout India. Nepal. Sri Lanka. Myanmar. Southeast Asia. China. Asia Pacific. Australia. New Zealand.

Commonly associated with aphids infesting grasses and also several crops like groundnut, rice, cotton, sunflower, safflower, mustard, cowpea, cabbage, maize, sorghum, water melon, wheat, brinjal, bhendi, lucerne, etc. Smart weed (Polygonum hydropiper) harbours this species in large numbers.

HEMIPTERA: Aphididae: Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), Aphis affinis Del Guercio, Aphis craccivora Koch, Aphis gossypii Glover, Aphis nerii Boyer de Fonscolombe, Aphis spiraecola Patch, Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach), Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus), Cervaphis quercus Takahashi, Cervaphis rappardi indica Basu, Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Kaltenbach) (as L. erysimi (Kaltenbach)), Macrosiphoniella yomogifoliae (Shinji), Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), Macrosiphum rosae (Linnaeus), Melanaphis donacis (Passerini), Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner), Myzus nicotianae Blackman, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), Pentalonia nigronervosa Coquerel, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch), Sitobion rosaeiformis (Das), Taoia indica (Ghosh & Raychaudhuri), Toxoptera aurantii (Boyer de Fonscolombe), Therioaphis ononidis (Kaltenbach), Therioaphis trifolii (Monell), Uroleucon compositae (Theobald), Uroleucon sonchi (Linnaeus). Cicadellidae: Empoascanara indica (Datta), Idioscopus clypealis (Lethierry). Ortheziidae: Orthezia insignis Browne. Psyllidae: Diaphorina citri Kuwayama. LEPIDOPTERA: Noctuidae: Helicoverpa armigera (Huebner); Spodoptera litura (Fabricius).

Present throughout the year. Active during July-November in south India.

Dinocampus coccinellae (Schrank), Tetrastichus sp., Coccipolipus macfarlanei Husband, Coccipolipus sp.