Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

Their Biology and Classification

Adam Slipinski

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780642568557
• eBook ISBN: 9780643109926
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book, by Australia's ladybird beetle specialist, Dr Adam Slipinski, illustrates Australia's diverse and fascinating ladybird beetle fauna — the commoner spotted species and the many others that are striped, glossy, and even very hairy. Most are predatory, but some are leaf feeders.

This book reviews all 57 currently recognised genera of Australian Coccinellidae, recognising 260 valid described species, and including some genera and species newly described here.

All genera are diagnosed, described and illustrated and a key to their identification is provided. Larvae of 30 species are described, illustrated and keyed.

Sets of colour and black and white plates display these often beautifully colourful beetles, and their key features.

The book is a must for all people interested in Australia's beetle fauna, in biocontrol and in natural resource management.

This book was originally published in hardback by Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) in 2007 and is now available in a digital format.

Review of the Australian genera of Coccinellidae

Subfamily Microweiseinae

Microweiseini Leng, 1920: 213. Type genus: Microweisea Cockerell, 1903.

Scotoscymninae Duverger, 2003: 60. Type genus: Scotoscymnus Weise, 1901.

Diagnosis

ADULT. Body minute (1–4 mm); head in repose usually deflexed and fitting closely under or against medially projected prosternum; dorsum usually with apparent dorsal vestiture. Clypeal and frontal regions usually prominent anteriorly; clypeus emarginate around exposed and rather narrowly separated frontally located antennal insertions. Mandible small, triangular, with single apical tooth and no mola or prostheca; maxillary palp long, geniculate; terminal palpomere elongate, about as long as strongly elongate segment 2; labial palps slender, narrowly separated at base and inserted on distal end of prementum. Antenna 8- to 10-segmented with 1–3-segmented club. Pronotum almost always with line or ridge separating anterior corners from the pronotal disc, and often extended along lateral edge. Prosternal process narrow; procoxal cavity almost always circular in outline. Winged or wingless; wing with reduced venation, never with anal lobe. Elytral punctures sometimes in apparent rows. Abdomen with 5–six ventrites; ventrite 1 distinctly longer than 2. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete, usually with associated oblique dividing line, pits and pores. Tegmen always asymmetrical, parameres asymmetrical, short to reduced and fused to penis guide, with one or more setae apically; phallobase with additional basal piece. Ovipositor triangular, elongate, lightly sclerotised and bearing short styli; spermatheca small and well sclerotised, usually multi-cameral.

LARVA. Length 1–5 mm; body fusiform; cuticle of thorax and abdomen finely and densely granulate, bearing single minute seta on each granule. Head with frontal arms separated at base, lyriform, strongly divergent apically; epicranial stem absent. Antenna very short, comprising three sclerotised segments. Mandible simple, triangular with single apex and blunt non-projected molar area. Maxillary mala slender and distinctly narrowing apically (almost falcate). Maxillary palp longer than mala; 3-segmented; labial palps 2-segmented. Abdomen without defence gland openings. Legs short and slender; apex of tibiotarsus with a pair of flattened and frayed setae.

Remarks

This subfamily is regarded here as a sister group to the Coccinellidae proper and is well characterised by several adult and larval synapomorphies as listed above.

Serangiini, Sukunahikonini and Microweiseini have been associated traditionally with Sticholotidini and some other groups in a large and diverse subfamily Sticholotidinae, characterised by their small size and terminal maxillary palpomere narrowed apically (with many exceptions). Duverger (2003) separated these three tribes along with exotic Carinodulini into a subfamily ‘Scotoscymninae’ and this grouping is followed here. The name he proposed, ‘Scotoscymninae’, is unnecessary as several family group names are available for this taxon, the oldest of them being Microweiseinae of Leng (1920).

Tribe Sukunahikonini

Sukunahikonini Kamiya, 1960: 24. Type genus: Sukunahikona Kamiya, 1960 (= Scymnomorphus Weise, 1897).

Scotoscymninae Duverger, 2003: 60. Type genus: Scotoscymnus Weise, 1901 (= Scymnomorphus Weise, 1897).

References: Gordon 1977: 188–200; Fürsch 1985a; Miyatake 1994: 233–238;

lipi

ski & Tomaszewska 2005.

Diagnosis

ADULT. Body minute (1–3 mm), moderately to strongly convex with head in repose deflexed and fitting closely under prosternum (Fig. 892); dorsum usually with apparent dorsal vestiture. Head transverse, ventrally flattened (Fig. 896) often with clypeal and frontal regions prominent anteriorly; clypeus emarginate around exposed antennal insertions, ventral side with short antennal groove accommodating scape and pedicel along inner margin of eye. Mandible small, triangular with single apical tooth and no mola; maxillary palp long, geniculate; terminal palpomere elongate and conical (Fig. 894); labial palps slender, narrowly separated at base and inserted on distal end of prementum (Fig. 894). Antenna 8- to 10-segmented with 1–3-segmented club. Pronotum almost always with line or ridge separating anterior corners from the pronotal disc, often extending along lateral edge. Prosternum strongly reduced and narrow; prosternal process reduced to a short triangular piece or a narrow carina. Winged or wingless; wing with reduced venation, never with anal lobe. Elytral punctures sometimes in apparent rows; epipleuron narrow usually incomplete apically, without cavities; lateral part of elytron often with a carina parallel to lateral margin. Abdomen with 5–six ventrites; ventrite 1 distinctly longer than 2. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete, usually with associated oblique dividing line, pits and pores. Tegmen asymmetrical, parameres short to reduced with one or more setae apically. Ovipositor triangular, elongate, lightly sclerotised bearing short styli; spermatheca small and well sclerotised, multi-cameral.

LARVA (Scymnomorphus). Length 1.3 mm; body fusiform and uniformly greyish; cuticle of thorax and abdomen finely and densely granulate, bearing single minute seta on each granule. Head with frontal arms separated at base, lyriform, strongly divergent apically; epicranial stem absent. Antenna very short, composed of three sclerotised segments. Mandible simple, triangular with single apex and blunt non-projected molar area. Maxillary mala slender and distinctly narrowing apically (almost falcate). Maxillary palp longer than mala; 3-segmented; labial palps 2-segmented. Abdomen without defence gland openings. Legs short and slender; apex of tibiotarsus with a pair of flattened and frayed setae; claw without distinct basal tooth.

Remarks

The tribe Sukunahikonini was described by Kamiya (1960) to accommodate his new genus Sukunahikona from Japan. On erecting the tribe, Kamiya pointed out peculiarities of the genus in structure of the mandibles and maxillary palps, the narrow prosternal process and the asymmetrical tegmen of the male genitalia. In 1967, he described an interesting wingless coccinellid species from Taiwan and placed it in a new genus Hikonasukuna Sasaji in the Sukunahikonini. He (Sasaji 1971a) classified Sukunahikonini in the subfamily Sticholotidinae along with the tribes Sticholotidini, Serangiini and Shirozuellini. This placement was further elaborated in his major paper on phylogeny of Coccinellidae (Sasaji 1968a). The limits of the tribe Sukunahikonini as discussed in Miyatake’s paper (1994) also are accepted here, pending a worldwide revision of the tribe. As such, the tribe includes five valid genera worldwide, of which Orculus Sicard and Hikonasukuna Sasaji are limited in their geographic ranges to Central and West Africa (Sicard 1931), and Taiwan (Sasaji 1967), respectively, while the remaining three are now shown to be widespread, with Scymnomorphus Weise (= Sukunahikona) occurring commonly i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Abstract
• Preface and acknowledgements
• Material and methods
• Introduction
• Biology and ecology of Coccinellidae
• Coccinellidae in biological control
• Morphology of adult beetles
• Morphology of larvae and pupae
• Phylogeny and classification of Coccinellidae
• Australian Coccinellidae
• Family Coccinellidae
• Keys to identification of Australian genera of Coccinellidae
• Review of the Australian genera of Coccinellidae
• Genus erroneously recorded from Australia
• Bibliography
• Plates
• Index of scientific names