Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#355650
Cycloneda munda with spots? - Hippodamia variegata

Cycloneda munda with spots? - Hippodamia variegata
near Praag, along State Hwy 88, Buffalo County, Wisconsin, USA
November 29, 2009
Size: 2.5 mm
The pattern on the pronotum looks like Cycloneda, but it has distinct spots. Any ideas?

Images of this individual: tag all
Cycloneda munda with spots? - Hippodamia variegata Cycloneda munda with spots? - Hippodamia variegata

Moved
Moved from Hippodamia.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Maybe Hippodamia variegata? T
Maybe Hippodamia variegata? The pictures in the guide look similar.

 
Hippodamia variegata
Thanks - I think that's it.

Hippodamia
This is something in the Hippodamia, probably simply a variation of H. convergens, in fact.

 
Maybe H. variegata?
Thanks - it certainly does look like a Hippodamia sp. I found some photos of H. variegata in the guide that look very similar. Here's one of them: http://bugguide.net/node/view/315273/bgimage.

 
Ok
Ok, but the two species are really, really hard to tell apart.

 
Maybe H. variegata?
Is there a way I could tell the difference? I still have the insect.

 
keep at genus level.
As Eric says, these are very difficult to tell apart.

From Gordon '85, "specimens having the elytral maculation reduced or absent are difficult to recognize without examination of the male genitalia. The normally maculate specimens can usually be recognized without dissection because the elytral spots are small and nearly always discrete, or if confluent, only feebly so. The other species possessing convergent pale spots on the pronotum usually have the elytral spots heavy and with a tendency to coalesce"

 
I'd say not convergens, though
Which isn't the same as saying it is H. variegata. But the markings on the pronotum aren't convergent like \   / - they're angled slightly away from each other, /   \

Gordon states of H. convergens "Pronotum with convergent pale spots" without qualification, and all 15 illustrations of H. convergens in E. A. Chapin's "Review of the New World species of Hippodamia Dejean"(1) have prominent convergent lines - never reduced to short lines, ovals, or spots, and never as close to the pale pronotal margin as this individual's. (H. variegata hadn't been introduced at the time of Chapin's writing in 1946, so he doesn't have any illustrations of it.)

 
Thanks for the info
It should probably go on the species or genus page, too, in some form.

Please help me with one thing. At the beginning, where Gordon says "specimens having...," is he talking about variegata, such that at the end, where he says "The other species...," he's talking about convergens? Or is it the other way around? I don't have the paper.

 
convergens
My bad - I should have stated convergens

But the good news is that Gordon '85 is now available on-line! Here's the link

and just to save a little time, here's the direct link to the convergens page


enjoy,

 
thanks!
although now I'm wondering if most of the images under variegata in the guide should be at genus level instead.

 
probably some
especially the ones with light maculation

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.