[ID] Ladybird; Coccidulinae

[Jason Green]

Evening all,

I collected the attached atypical ladybird yesterday, beaten from over-wintering Dead-nettle (?) foliage in a brownfield setting.

03/11/2011

Set-specimen and image showing elytral depressions

When this 3mm individual dropped-in, I noticed the similarity to Rhyzobius litura/chrysomeloides, but was notably elongate camparatively. Under the microscope, it's got a good coverage of semi-decumbent silvery pubescence, each one emanating from confused, non-striate punctures - some larger than others. There are a pair of nice but very subtle elytal-depressions as you'll see above. The tarsal claws feature a small accessory tooth just beyond the apex. Genitalically-useless; it wasn't of the same formation as in litura/chrysomeloides, it was more the elongate as in the ype you get from flea-beetles. As soon as it was extracted it seemed to collapse and merge-in with the already-drying surrounding fatty-tissues. I no longer have that to study as a result, and haven't yet tried using NaOH though I plan to soon.

Any ideas, anyone?

Take care,

Jason

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Jason,

in my ind you're right in the genus Rhyzobius and this one is deformed (why ever). It is Rhyzobius chrysomeloides.

Regards
Klaas

P.S.: By the way: very interresting. Haven't seen anyone like this yet.

[Jason Green]

Thanks, Klaas. Strange thing, certainly makes an interesting spcimen anyway.