Harmonia sedecimnotata (Fabricius)

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 : 146

Harmonia sedecimnotata (Fabricius)

( Figs 102 , 103 )

Coccinella sedecimnotata Fabricius, 1801: 370 (Type locality: Indonesia).

Daulis 16—notata : Mulsant 1850: 296.

Callineda sedecimnotata: Crotch 1874: 161 ; Korschefsky 1932: 282; Bielawski 1959: 156.

Harmonia sedecimnotata: Timberlake 1943: 18 ; Poorani 2002a: 332; Yu 2010: 123.

Diagnosis. Length: 6.00–7.00 mm; width: 5.00– 6.30 mm. Form ( Fig. 102a, b ) elongate, moderately convex. Ground colour ochraceous yellow to yellowish brown. Pronotum with a pair of black spots, one on either side of middle. Each elytron with eight black spots, arranged in a 2-3-2-1 pattern, rarely elytral spots much larger in size ( Fig. 102b ), resembling a variant of H. eucharis . Ventral side uniformly yellowish. Abdominal postcoxal line ( Fig. 102c ) incomplete, with an associated oblique line. Spermatheca ( Fig. 102d ) and male genitalia ( Fig. 102e–h ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Larva ( Fig. 103a–d ) yellow with black maculae; pupa ( Fig. 103e, f ) creamy white or yellow with black maculae.

Distribution. India: Common in northeastern region (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal); Nepal; Bhutan; China; Taiwan; Indonesia; Malaysia; The Philippines.

Prey/associated habitat. Hemiptera: Aphidoidea :Associated with Aphis craccivora Koch infestation on Alnus sp. ; Mollitrichosiphum alni Ghosh et al. , Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and eggs of Angoumois grain moth ( Sitotroga cerealella Olivier ) have been used as laboratory hosts ( Semyanov, 2000). Found feeding on aphids infesting Bidens pilosa ( Sajan et al. 2019) . Associated with aphids on okra, eggplant, tomato, guava, chillies, and ornamental plants (Boopathi et al. 2020).

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during June from northeastern region.

Notes. Bielawski (1959), Miyatake (1965), Ren et al. (2009), and Yu (2010) provided descriptive accounts with illustrations. Singh & Phaloura (1990) provided a field key to the larva. Phaloura & Singh (1993) and Semyanov (2000) studied its biology. Boopathi et al. (2020) studied its biology and life table and found it to be a promising predator for controlling the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii .

Figures

FIGURE 102. Harmonia sedecimnotata (Fabricius):a.adult, nominate form; b. adult, variant similar to H.eucharis; c. abdominal postcoxal line; d. spermatheca; e–h. male genitalia: e. tegmen, lateral view; f. tegmen, ventral view; g. penis; h. penis apex.

FIGURE 103. Harmonia sedecimnotata (Fabricius), life stages: a–d. larva; e, f. pupa; g, h. adult.