Scientific name

Coccinella undecimpunctata Linnaeus

Common name

Eleven-spotted ladybird

Taxonomic position

Coleoptera: Coccinellidae: Coccinellinae: Coccinellini

Diagnosis

Length 4.3-5.3 mm, width 3.0-4.0. Form elongate, moderately convex. Head black, with a pair of angular or oblique oval creamy yellow or white frontal spots, one on either side of inner margin of eyes. Pronotum black except anterolateral margins and corners white to creamy yellow. Scutellum black. Elytra orange yellow to red, with pale creamy yellow or whitish patches on either side of scutellum, one common scutellar spot and five black spots on each elytron in a 1-2-2 pattern as follows: one humeral, two in a transverse row at middle and two in a transverse row in apical third. Ventral side black except anterior part of pronotal hypomeron, meso- and metasternal epimera and elytral epipleura lighter, yellow to yellowish brown, sometimes entire ventral side light yellowish brown. Male genitalia (Figs) and female spermatheca (Fig.) as illustrated.

Images

 Adult
 Pcline

Distribution

India: Assam; Bihar; Delhi; Haryana; Jammu & Kashmir; Madhya Pradesh; Punjab; Uttar Pradesh; northwestern region. Pakistan. Nepal. Australia. New Zealand. Europe. Mediterranean region. North America.

Prey / Associated habitat

HEMITERA: Aphididae: Aphis craccivora Koch, Aphis gossypii Glover, Aphis nerii Boyer de Fonscolombe, Aphis pomi DeGeer, Aphis punicae Passerini, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus), Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy) (as Harundinis auctt.), Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Kaltenbach) (as L. erysimi (Kaltenbach)), Macrosiphoniella sanborni (Gillette), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch), Sitobion avenae (Fabricius), Sitobion graminis Takahashi, Sitobion miscanthi (Takahashi), indeterminate aphids on sugarcane. Lophopidae: Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker). Margarodidae: Drosicha stebbingi Green. Lepidoptera: Crambidae: early instar larvae of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe). Collected on wheat, sugarcane, maize, plum, cotton, mustard, melon, cabbage, tobacco, berseem, cowpea, bottle gourd, etc.

Seasonal occurrence

Collected during April-September, and November-February from different parts of northern India.

References

  • Belicek, J. 1976. Coccinellidae of Western Canada and Alaska with analyses of the transmontane zoogeographic relationships between the fauna of British Columbia and Alberta (Insecta: Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Quaestiones Entomologicae, 12(4), 283-409.
  • Emden, F. van, 1949. The Larvae of British beetles: VII. Coccinellidae. 19 p.
  • Pope, R.D. 1989. A revision of the Australian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Part I. Subfamily Coccinellinae. Invertebrate Taxonomy 3 (1988): 633-735.
  • Rahman, K.A. 1940. Important insect predators of India. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences(B), 12: 67-74.
  • Savoiskaya, G.I. & Klausnitzer, B. 1973. Morphology and taxonomy of the larvae with keys for their identification, pp. 36-55. In: Biology of the Coccinellidae (Ed. I. Hodek). W.Junk, Prague & Hague.