Epilachninae

A. Epilachna indica

A Coccinellid Encounter at School

This morning when I was fertilizing the vegetable seedlings at the school garden, I bumped into a bizarre looking coccinellid crawling up and down the sunflowers. The coccinellid was a reddish-orange one about 2 mm long. The body shape was quite oval but, I could not tell the genus nor the species at all. Therefore, I caught it, put it in a small vial. I will bring it home for a further identification. Macro-sized pictures will be taken as soon as I get home.

Back again. The pictures have been taken. Take a look at the SCYMNINAE icon at the LOCAL SUBFAMILIES CATEGORY.

Interactive Learning with Ladybird Morphology

Let's learn some important morphologies of a ladybird...

A. Visible prothoracic parts



B. Wing Veins (Coelophora inequalis.spec./Menochilus sexmaculatus; right and left)

Identification of a Coccinellid

When it comes to the taxonomic identification of coccinellid, one would figure how on earth he can tell the difference between one species and another. The same thing goes to me when I first time handled a beetle not knowing whether it was a coccinellid or otherwise especially those which are not regarded as 'ladybird'. Therefore, scientists have come up with few morphological characteristics to define and distinguish a coccinellid from other beetle.

Morphological Characteristics

A. Body shape : rounded or oval, dorsally convex (dome-shaped), nearly flat on the ventral
(bottom)

B. Pronotum : often conceals the head from the above, and may be look like a head.

C. Antennae : short or very short with 8-11 segments; last 3-6 segments form a weak club.

D. Tarsal formula : 4-4-4 but appears 3-3-3. In other words, each lower leg appears to have
three segments.

E. First abdominal sternite : entirely not divided by hind coxae (charactersitic of suborder
polyphaga of the Coleoptera)

COCCINELLINAE

A. Menochilus sexmaculatus






B. Coelophora inequalis spectabilis




C. Micraspis discolor





D. Coccinella transversalis

SCYMNINAE

A. Scymnus apiciflavus



B. Scymnus spp (unknown species)



C. Scymnus spp (unknown species)




D. Scymnus spp (unknown species)







E. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri



F. Scymnus spp (unknown)






E. Cryptogonus spp (unknown)





F. Scymnus spp




G. Scymnus spp (unknown)





F. Scymnus spp (Unknown)



G. Scymnus spp (Unknown)