Oenopia sexareata (Mulsant)

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, Zootaxa 5332 (1), pp. 1-307 : 221-224

Oenopia sexareata (Mulsant)

( Figs 158 , 159 )

Coelophora sexareata Mulsant, 1853: 53 (Lectotype, UCCC; Type locality: India).

Coelophora sexareata: Korschefsky 1932: 296 ; Kapur 1963a: 29.

Coelophora sexareata var. lacerata Sicard, 1913: 510 .— Korschefsky 1932: 296.

Gyrocaria sexareata: Miyatake 1967: 76 .

Oenopia sexareata: Hoang 1983: 62 ; Poorani 2002a: 337; Poorani 2002b: 101; Yu 2010: 95.

Diagnosis. Length: 3.85–4.32 mm; width: 3.25–3.80 mm. Form ( Figs 158f , 159a–c ) broad oval to almost circular, dorsum strongly convex and glabrous. Head anteriorly creamy white to yellow in males, completely black in females. Pronotum black, except anterior corners light yellow. Elytra bright carmine red, orange or yellowish in live specimens ( Fig. 159a–c ), yellowish brown in older specimens, with a characteristic areolate pattern having six cells, sometimes cell boundaries somewhat broken and not continuous. Male genitalia ( Fig. 158g –i ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 158j ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. As illustrated in Fig. 158a–e .

Distribution. India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal); Nepal; Bhutan; Myanmar; China; Vietnam.

Prey/associated habitat. Hemiptera: Aphidoidea : Adelges sp. , Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach) , Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) , Eutrichosiphum raychaudhurii (Ghosh) , Indoidiopterus geranii Chowdhuri et al. , Macrosiphum rosae (Linnaeus) , Mollitrichosiphum alni Ghosh et al. , Myzus persicae (Sulzer) , Pemphigus ? napaeus Buckton, Pineus sp. , Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) , Shinjia orientalis (Mordvilko) (as S. pterydifoliae (Shinji)) , Sitobion miscanthi (Takahashi) , Sitobion rosaeiformis (Das) , Taoia indica (Ghosh & Raychaudhuri) . Collected on cabbage and other cole crops, potato, silver fir, pine, potato, Artemisia vulgaris , Alnus nepalensis , etc.

Seasonal occurrence. Very common during summer (March–July) in northern and northeastern India. Collected during February, October–December (label data).

Notes. It is one of the most pretty and commonly collected species of Oenopia in the northeastern region of India. Devi (1989) listed its prey and associated host plants. For more detailed accounts and illustrations, see Miyatake (1967), Poorani (2002b), Ren et al. (2009) and Yu (2010).

Figures

FIGURE 158. Oenopia sexareata Mulsant, life stages: a, b. eggs on silver fir; c. early–stage larva; d. full grown larva; e. pupa; f. adult male; g–i. male genitalia: g. tegmen, ventral view; h. penis; i. penis apex; j. spermatheca.

FIGURE 159. Oenopia sexareata Mulsant: a–e. live adult.