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Photo#523566
Chilocorus? - Thalassa montezumae

Chilocorus? - Thalassa montezumae
Sanibel, Lee County, Florida, USA
June 2, 2011
The emerging adult looks to be a Chilocorus of some sort but the waxy coating on the larvae is throwing me off.

Images of this individual: tag all
Chilocorus? - Thalassa montezumae Chilocorus? - Thalassa montezumae Chilocorus? - Thalassa montezumae

Moved
Moved from Hyperaspis.

I think the three images may be 2 species
The individuals in the 2nd and 3rd images have very different spot placement - well towards the rear of the body in #2, slightly aft of middle but definitely not apical in #3. Trying to fit both individuals into a single species has not been working at all! Even if the images are from the same plant, it's possible to have 2 different species in the same genus in the same place, especially if there are prey insects that would attract a lot of lady beetles anyway.

I have a strong feeling that #2 is Hyperaspis inedita. I don't think #3 can go to species, females are always more difficult and the black-with-two-red-discal-spots pattern is extremely common in the genus.

I do realize that the images on BG already for H. inedita don't look like yours, but the species has variable spot sizes and locations. #3 still can't be H. inedita, though, because females of that species have white markings on the pronotum.

For the record, in case these do get split up, here's what I'm talking about when I say #2:


And here's #3:

 
It seems that the position of the marking is variable in this sp
These will all be the same species, as they are placed currently.

 
I see the blue sheen now
They look so dark in the photos that I was stuck on the black beetles with red spots, but now that you've ID'd these, I do see that they have a blue sheen and orange spots.

 
I lost my faith in this feature
All the ones I see from Mexico are not blue at all, not even in living state. And they definitely can have red, rather than orange, spots.

 
diagnostic features
Other than color, what do you recommend looking for as diagnostic features?

I updated the species info page to include the different colorations.

 
Body shape is good
Quite different from Chilocorus if you get a good angle, as in the first photo here. And of course, a male has a white head and pronotal markings. The other clue would be the shape of the red/orange marking, and position of said marking when it happens to be further back. And of course larvae, if they happen to be around the adults.

I'm wondering if the blue sheen is even real -- is it just an artifact of lighting?

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Hyperaspis, not sure which
You're right, Chilocorus doesn't have waxy tufts like that. This is in subfamily Scymninae, genus Hyperaspis, but I can't tell what species it is. It doesn't quite match anything I can find. The dorsal pattern looks like H. bigeminata but that species has red or orange rounded markings on the pronotum, not a narrow white margin like yours.

Although the image quality isn't great I'm going to keep these in the Guide because we have no other verified Hyperaspis larva/pupa images.