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Photo#364595
Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female

Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - Female
Webb Canyon, ~2000 ft. elevation, Los Angeles County, California, USA
May 15, 2009
Size: ~2.25 mm
I had subscribed to one of Margarethe's posts awhile back because I thought her coccinellid specimen looked similar to one I had rescued from the pool last Spring. Earlier today, Abby left a comment on that post in which she mentioned that one of the possible species she had ruled out was H. quadrioculata which, she went on to state, was the "right size, excellent pattern match, but females have yellow pronotal margin and it's only in CA and NV". Immediately intrigued, I went to go take a second look at my archived photos. I'm not certain if there are any other similar-looking Hyperaspis from my area of CA, but her description certainly seems like a good match for my specimen. Also, I found this image of H. quadrioculata for comparison on the SBMNH website. There is also another image (here, then scroll down a bit) in the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects, where this species is described as being "fairly common, especially in the west".

Sorry my photos aren't better quality, but working with anything as small as 2 or 3 mm and my camera starts to struggle. Would love to get opinions and input from others regarding my speculations!

Surrounding habitat is chaparral and mixed oak woodland.

Images of this individual: tag all
Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female Could this be Hyperaspis quadrioculata? - Hyperaspis quadrioculata - female

Moved
Moved from Hyperaspis.

Hyperaspis quadrioculata, fidelis form - nailed it :-)
I was a little worried about the size - it seems small for H. quadrioculata - until I found the original description of the fidelis form in Casey's "Notes on Coccinellidae," 1908. He had it as a separate species, with the holotype a 2.3mm female from Los Angeles. The other external features also match your beetle, and with the L.A. location it's a perfect fit.

I'm in bug-geek heaven at the moment - I'd been looking and looking at Casey's quadrioculata notes for a size range, and it just wasn't there. But then I looked two paragraphs up, saw "H. f_idelis," and the light dawned. There is literally nothing I'd rather be doing on a Friday night!

 
Hey, Abby...
...I meant to ask you this when you first made the ID, but I forgot. Can you tell if this is a male or female?

 
Female
Sorry I didn't clarify! She's a perfect match to the female "fidelis" holotype, in both markings and size.

 
Wow! Thanks so much for the ID, Abby!
I know how great it is when you are searching for some bit of information or confirmation for your suspicions -- and then *voilĂ *, there it is! I certainly don't want to throw any kind of wrench into the works, but I thought I should mention that I'm never really certain if I'm measuring correctly when it comes to beetles -- especially when they are slightly hypognathous. I'm sure with dead specimens, it's possible that the head may not point down as much... Anyway, I just added an image to the series (which I've already assigned to Frass) that shows how I derived my measurement. The "N" on the penny is 2 mm -- let me know if you think I erred in my estimation for the beetle.

[UPDATE: Since the Frass image will not be around after 30 days, just thought I'd mention that Abby was in agreement with my size estimate.]

Interesting, Harsi
This may be another creature that's around, but tough to see and shoot. Separately, I'm amazed at the results you get with a point-and-shoot on something this small!

 
Oh, to be sure...
...for what it is, the Canon S5IS is a great little camera for doing macro. Admirably light in your hand and light on the pocketbook too -- it's just not ever going to produce images that even come close to the quality that is possible with the DSLR macro lenses...

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