Novius sexmaculatus (Korschefsky)

Poorani, J., 2023, A review of the tribe Noviini (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian subcontinent, Zootaxa 5311 (1), pp. 1-47 : 34-37

Novius sexmaculatus (Korschefsky)

( Figs 25–27 )

Rodolia sexmaculata Korschefsky, 1940: 2 .

Rodolia 6-maculata (in part): sensu Kapur 1949: 535 (as a synonym of N. guerini ).

Novius sexmaculatus: Pang et al. 2020: 20 .

Diagnosis. Length: 3.00– 3.45 mm; width: 2.50–2.86 mm. Form ( Figs 25a–c , 27f ) elongate, ellipsoidal-oval, broadest around middle, distal third of elytra gradually tapering towards apices; dorsum strongly convex and pubescent. Dorsal side dull reddish brown, pronotum with a pair of black spots above basal margin, elytra with six black, oval maculae, usually very pale, often fused or not well defined. Prosternal intercoxal process ( Fig. 25d ) trapezoidal, gradually divergent towards posterior. Male genitalia ( Figs. 25h–k ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 25l ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. The larva ( Fig. 26a–g ) is dull purplish brown and elongate fusiform and the pupa ( Fig. 26h ) is reddish orange as illustrated.

Material examined: INDIA: Uttarakhand, A.K. Mishra, 6 ex. ( NRCB) .

Distribution. India: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh.

Prey/associated habitat. Drosicha stebbingii (Stebbing) on sal tree ( Shorea robusta ); Icerya seychellarum ( Fig. 27a–e ) (label data).

Seasonal occurrence. March–May (label data).

Notes. This is a poorly documented but distinct species and Korschefsky (1940) described it from Dehradun, northern India. Mader (1939: 49) first used the name “ 6-maculata ” as an infrasubspecific name for an aberrant form of Rodolia quadrimaculata Mader, 1939 , described from China. Kapur (1949) treated N. sexmaculatus (Korschefsky) as a synonym of Novius sexnotatus (Mulsant) possibly due to the similar positioning of the elytral maculae but usually N. sexmaculatus has very dull, much paler and indistinct elytral and pronotal maculae compared to N. sexnotatus and the male genitalia also are distinctly different. His subsequent record of ‘ N. guerini’ from Dehradun ( Kapur 1951) also is likely to involve this species. Stebbing (1903) provided an exhaustive account of the life history, immature stages and hosts of ‘ V. guerinii’, that are most likely to have involved N. sexmaculatus . The description and illustrations of the adult and immature stages provided for “ Vedalia guerinii ” by Stebbing (1903) fit this species more accurately and the locality of collection mentioned by Stebbing also matches the type locality mentioned by Korschefsky (1940).

Figures

FIGURE 25. Novius sexmaculatus (Korschefsky): a–c. adult, variants; d. prosternal process; e. abdomen, male; f. abdominal postcoxal line; g. apical ventrite, female; h–k. male genitalia: h, j. tegmen, inner view; i. tegmen, lateral view; k. penis; l. female genitalia: spermatheca.

FIGURE 26. Life stages of Novius sexmaculatus (Korschefsky) from Uttarakhand, India: a–g. larva; h. pupa.

FIGURE 27. Novius sexmaculatus (Korschefsky): a–e. adult feeding on Icerya seychallarum; f. adult.