Oenopia signatella (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 : 224

Oenopia signatella (Mulsant)

( Fig. 160 )

Harmonia signatella Mulsant, 1866: 58 (Lectotype, UCCC; Type locality: “les régions boréales des Indes-Orientales”). Coccinella signatella: Crotch 1874: 110 .

Coccinella (Synharmonia) signatella: Korschefsky 1932: 494 .

Synharmonia signatella: Mader 1931: 199 ; Kapur 1963a: 33.

Oenopia signatella: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 411 ; Poorani 2002a: 337; Poorani 2002b: 105; Yu 2010: 104.

Paramulsantina gratiosa Hoang, 1982: 10 .— Kovář 2007: 622.

Paramulsantina ornata Hoang, 1982: 11 .— Kovář 2007: 622.

Diagnosis. Length: 4.30–4.80 mm; width: 3.20–3.60 mm. Form ( Fig. 160a ) elongate oval, dorsum weakly convex and glabrous. Ground colour of head and pronotum whitish creamy yellow, elytra creamy yellow. Head with a basal, medially emarginate black macula. Pronotum with seven black spots roughly forming a W-shaped pattern. Elytra immaculate, creamy yellow to yellow. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete with an oblique associated line ( Fig. 160b, c ). Male genitalia ( Fig. 160d–g ) as illustrated. Female genitalia ( Fig. 160h ) as illustrated, spermatheca ( Fig. 160i ) having a distinct ramus but nodulus not well differentiated, infundibulum absent.

Distribution. India (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, West Bengal); Eastern Himalayas; Bhutan; Nepal; Myanmar.

Prey/associated habitat. Hemiptera: Aphidoidea : Adelges sp. , Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann) . Collected on apple.

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during July–September from Sikkim.

Notes. Forms of O. conglobata with obsolete elytral pattern look remarkably like O. signatella as the pronotum has the same number of spots, but the latter has a much more restricted distribution. This is the only species of Indian Oenopia in which the spermatheca has a comparatively shorter but distinct ramus that is not distally swollen and indistinct nodulus and the infundibulum is absent. However, the male genitalia are of typical Oenopia form. Bielawski (1979) and Poorani (2002b) treated it in more detail. Ren et al. (2009) and Yu (2010) included it in their works on Chinese Coccinellini .

Figures

FIGURE 160. Oenopia signatella (Mulsant): a. adult, dorsal view; b. abdominal postcoxal line, male; c. abdominal postcoxal line, female; d–g. male genitalia: d. tegmen, lateral view; e. tegmen, ventral view; f. penis; g. penis apex; h. female genitalia; i. spermatheca.