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.