Scymnus and Cryptolaemus

I don't have the key to the larvae yet, but I just read a really interesting article (really a must-read, it is so well written!)by William Morton Wheeler from 1911 entitled "An Ant-Nest Coccinellid (Brachyacantha quadripunctata Mels.)" from the Journal of the New York Ent Soc, Sept 1911, which describes the life cycle of these critters in and around anthills in Boston, Mass. The point of this ramble is that his description of the larvae are as follows: "The larvae, when first found, were covered with dense tufts of white wax...", which indicates that the problem you describe above is even more complex.

Apparently, from what I have been able to glean so far, many (most?) Scymnines have waxy tufted larvae. Is it actually possible to differentiate between Scymnus, Brachiacantha, Diomus, Nephus and other genera of Scymnines in a photo with the larval key?

Perhaps at this point, it would be prudent to place all the photos of waxy tufted larvae at the family level, and then look for the characters in the photos that might help us to go further? Again, I am not yet familiar with the larval key by Rees et al. 1994, but is it possible that some could be separated from characters like branched vs unbranched tufts, etc? Perhaps someone familiar with the existing larval keys could weigh in on this ...

Chuck, I can only offer what I've read from Gordon's ref.(1), but from that it sounds fairly easy to tell: yellow legs = Scymnus sp., dark brown/black legs = Cryptolaemus. And I just added same to C. montrouzieri - hopefully will prevent future misplacements. See some additional info under

But I wouldn't trust "other sites", as even as a non-expert I've seen obvious mis-IDs even on university and gov ag sites.

I posted comments on a few adult images parked under Cryptolaemus but didn't move them. But having heard no objections to date, perhaps it's time to act on those comments.

Regarding the larval, I don't know a good way to tell them apart, but I'll check my key tomorrow and post an update if I find anything.