New Ladybird... - Brachiacantha dentipes

Moved

… Abigail Parker, 11 October, 2009 - 5:24pm

I'd go with B. dentipes

Red/orange markings on the head and pronotum - B. decora has pale yellow or white markings. Your location rules out the otherwise-similar dark form of B. tau. So I'd go with B. dentipes here, and without a pale anterior margin of the pronotum, I'd say female, too - red head or not :-)

… Abigail Parker, 10 October, 2009 - 1:55pm

Check this out

LOOKS RIGHT TO ME!

… Jason W., 30 March, 2009 - 8:10pm

can't load the page :-(

The wireless connection on my laptop has something against .edu domain names...

… Abigail Parker, 10 October, 2009 - 1:57pm

Ladybug project

How about sending it to The lost ladybug project of Cornell University?

… Beatriz Moisset, 30 March, 2009 - 10:09am

Ron is probably right...

...there is a seemingly endless number of variations to H. axyridis. Still, I can't remember ever seeing blocks of color on the pronotum before. Hopefully no one will think I'm causing trouble if I make a wild, speculative suggestion... Is it possible that this is Hyperaspis connectens?

The info page does say, "The spots are usually -- but not always -- connected."

Please forgive me if I'm totally wrong on this one... I've still so much to learn!

[EDIT: Ooops! Was to busy getting up the nerve to post my comment and neglected to see that Tim had already rendered an expert verdict. Well, at least I'm glad to know my suggestion wasn't without merit!

… Harsi S. Parker, 29 March, 2009 - 10:58pm

Brachiacantha

It should never hurt to make your best guess - that's probably how we learn best. I was wrong on this one too (right subfamily - wrong genus and tribe).

This is definitely Brachiacantha, probably B. dentipes(see comments under )

, but possibly also B. decora. You're a little further south in FL than Gordon's stated distro for B. dentipes, but that is by far the wider-spread species. Gordon's(1) key states B. dentipes has the elytra median band usually appearing entire, while B. decora medial band composed of connected spots. Yours looks a little inbetween, leaning toward "entire". Suggest moving to the genus for now.

… Tim Moyer, 30 March, 2009 - 6:52am

I bet you have seen this species before :)

Please see Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis)

-AND-

Go figure :)

… Ron M., 29 March, 2009 - 10:16pm

Are you sure?

Harmonia axyridis is so variable in its markings that you can find one that looks like just about any other species. The best way to tell them from the other species is by the pronotum- and the pronotum on this specimen doesn't look at all like it.

I'm not qualified to even guess which species it really is, but I'm very skeptical about IDing it as Harmonia axyridis.

… Chuck Entz, 29 March, 2009 - 10:59pm

In my defense :)

The initial image was much darker...

Although I still think the color pattern matches several specimens we have in Harmonia axyridis, With this lighter image I can now see the differences in the overall shape (more oval) and in the more convex pronotum.

I guess I jumped too soon based on the color pattern.

Sorry Jason :)

-EDIT-

I just looked at this image again, from my main computer... I think it may be my monitor on one of my computers that made it look so dark.

… Ron M., 29 March, 2009 - 11:27pm

against H. axyridis

I'd vote against H. axyridis and for something more like Hyperaspis.

Yes, please add other pictures! - might be new species for BugGuide :)

… Tim Moyer, 29 March, 2009 - 10:46pm

It will probably be a day or

It will probably be a day or two before I can get a few better pictures up. My class load is huge right not , but will do very soon

… Jason W., 30 March, 2009 - 6:26am