Mulsantina? - Mulsantina picta

Would have liked to see the head better

Though its brownish, this pattern institutes several markings that are not on Mulsantina, for instance a scutellar spot and basal markings. Plus the extension of markings right to the margin is not characteristic.

Each species has a characteristic scale of how its markings progress. In Mulsantina picta, the scale mostly affects the vertical lines, not the horizontal ones. A poorly marked specimen has narrow vertical lines, while a well marked specimen has bold vertical lines. This is a bit hard to explain without diagrams, but hope that helps. The characteristics showing here just don't fit anywhere in the scale of Mulsantina, while it fits a well-known form of Adalia.

… James Bailey, 15 December, 2015 - 11:16pm

gestalt is Adalia for me too

I really try not to rely on gestalt for identifications, but looking at this with fresh eyes, it does read as A. bipunctata.

I'd been going through all the Mulsantina images on BG when I ID'd this, so it was easy to be in a Mulsantina mindset without considering other options as carefully as I should have.

(My gestalt for A. 2-punctata can be summarized as "pecan-shaped, and they look like they'd be cherry-flavored." This is why I don't tell people about it!)

… Abigail Parker, 22 January, 2016 - 5:21pm

No worries Abigail!

Personally I don't like using shape for identification unless its something obvious.

I'd rather look at the pattern which arguably is not 100% reliable either! But this marking pattern would be pretty unusual for any Mulsantina. Each species has an invisible "base" pattern that defines the variation range. Mulsantina picta would not be able to match this transverse bar pattern based on that.

… James Bailey, 1 March, 2016 - 10:45am

Moved

Moved from Lady Beetles.

… Abigail Parker, 12 May, 2014 - 11:22am

Mulsantina picta

An interesting pattern here, great find!

… Abigail Parker, 12 May, 2014 - 11:21am