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Photo#67940
Transverse Ladybeetle in willow rose gall-like growth - Coccinella

Transverse Ladybeetle in willow rose gall-like growth - Coccinella
Tazlina, Southcentral region, Southcentral Region, Game Management Unit 13D County, Alaska, USA
July 31, 2006
I know this isn't a great picture - but I was taking picture of the rose galls on this willow. Several had this lady beetle lurking inside, so I'm thinking there's a chance these beetles were the cause of these gall-like structures. If anyone knows for sure I'ld be very interested.

Moved

Moved
Moved from Coccinella.

Ladybugs and galls
Ladybugs are free-ranging predators, so they wouldn't cause galls. If there's a small insect causing the galls and it ever shows up on the surface of the leaf, the ladybugs would eat it. It may be that the presence of the ladybugs is because of the galls, rather than the other way around.

I don't know ladybug identification well enough to say with certainty on this species, but usually you need to see the area behind the head to be sure of identification.

 
ah yes
Good point - they eat other bugs - I should have though of that. Thanks for the id tip. We have a phenomenal outbreak of several different willow and alder defoliating insects as well as spruce needle rust and fungus on felt leaf willows this summer across interior and southcentral Alaska. I do not have keys good enough to id the defoliators. Any recommendations for the western states?

 
pretty sure this is C. transversoguttata
It's too far north for C. trifasciata subversa and the markings don't match C. trifasciata perplexa. Alaska is well within the range of C. transversoguttata and the markings match; even without seeing the pronotum, I feel confident in ID'ing this as C. transversoguttata.

 
Now I'm not confident
Without seeing whether it has a single central spot or a transverse band directly behind the pronotum, there's no telling whether this is C. transversoguttata or C. fulgida. (Which I wasn't considering at the time I posted the above comment.) Back to genus it goes...

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