It's really nice to see three stages in one photo. BTW, I think that's some kind of twice-stabbed lady beetle. (We have at least two kinds posted. I'd guess this is the more common Chilocorus stigma.)

Yes, these are probably C. stigma, based on location being north of stated range of C. catci. But an underside shot showing the extent of red coloration around the sternum would tell for sure.

Just responded to your comment about another Texas Chilocorus so I won't repeat it all here - anyone coming across this for the first time, see comments under this image:


Hard to say about the larvae; they look more like C. cacti to me, much paler overall than C. stigma, but the harsh lighting might be washing out the color.

Yes, definitely look like C. cacti to me.

thanks! We've had a really wet summer in North Texas and have had lots of problems with scale on crepe myrtles in our area. I guess it's prime feeding for the ladybugs. Hopefully there's enough of them to help out our tree! There's gotta be hundreds and hundreds of these papu on the tree, but the scale is pretty severe.