Asymmetrical ladybird

[loruschorus]

I spotted this unusual bilaterally asymmetric ladybird outside my office in Cambridge; it was about 7mm long. I had a piece of white paper and a pocket camera with me, so I snapped it!

Overall having 19 spots, half of the wing case is orange-yellow and the other half red. I'm not a good ladybird spotter (never have mastered telling harlequins apart, though I suspect this is one), but we have a very diverse assemblage here so I won't speculate as to species or cause of the asymmetry!

Any ideas what might cause this? Anyone seen one similar before?

Jeff

[Wild-Woman]

It's a Harlequin Ladybird. They come in a huge amount of colour forms.

[Deb London]

It reminds me of the half male half female butterfly, but I'm not sure if this insect was longitudinally asymmetric.

EDIT: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14108204 I think it was. If this is possible, then I guess colour asymmetry might work along the same line.

[loruschorus]

Thanks! I remember that article; there are several other spectacular photographs of bilateral gynandromorphism if you google, including one or two of birds.

However, I suspect that this is an unrelated phenomenon; male and female ladybirds are practically indistinguishable in the field as I understand it.

Jeff

[jeremiah]

It could be that it is recently hatched.

They are plain yellow when newly hatched and you can only just see where the spots are going to be. Maybe this one has some sort of circulation problem that is preventing one side from changing colour completely - you can see a "blush" of red on the yellow side.

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, the succinea form of Harmonia axyridis.
This elytral discrepancy does occur in many red-black species, especially the 7-spot, Coccinella septempunctata. I can suggest two reasons but have no idea which, if either, is applicable.
(a) the colour change of beetle surfaces is chemical - requires phenol modifiers from the haemolymph as well as oxidation from the atmosphere: if the lymph supply to one elytron is cut off or reduced, by trauma or maldevelopment, then maturation of that elytron's colour may be slowed or halted.
(b) In some species, notably the 10-spot, Adalia decempunctata, there are genes which control the rate and intensity of elytral background colouring: some elytra never progress beyond yellow/orange. This one might be a chimera with one elytron having a different genetic makeup to the other; don't ask me any more but it has been suggested for similar cases on 7-spots &c.!
I suspect that there's a lot more in the scientific literature but I'm adraid it doesn't come back to me at the moment!

[loruschorus]

Thanks, that's an extraordinarily detailed and helpful answer! Much obliged...

Regards,

Jeff