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TaxonomyBrowse
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Species Coccinella californica - California Lady Beetle

California ladybeetle - Coccinella californica California Ladybeetle - Coccinella californica California Lady Beetle (Coccinella californica) - Coccinella californica Lady Beetle  - Coccinella californica Coccinella californica - johnsoni form? - Coccinella californica Coccinella californica? - Coccinella californica Coccinella californica ? - Coccinella californica SBBG-SCL-TIC_000632 - Coccinella californica
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Coccinelloidea
No Taxon (Coccinellid group)
Family Coccinellidae (Lady Beetles)
Subfamily Coccinellinae
Genus Coccinella
No Taxon (narrow black elytral suture)
Species californica (California Lady Beetle)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Coccinella californica (Mannerheim)
Orig. Comb: Coccinella californica Mannerheim 1843
Syn: Coccinella johnsoni - considered a jr syn of C. californica (Belicek 1976)
Identification
Gordon's figures - Typical form:
Red or orange, no spots, black suture (where the wings meet, down the middle of the back). The black suture may expand into a small diamond-shaped patch near the base of the wings.
Pronotum (between wings and head) black with a white patch on each side
Head black with two small white spots between the eyes

Gordon's figure - "johnsoni" form:
Same as above but with black spots on elytra
Range
range hugs the west coast - Map (1)
See Also
Nine-spotted Lady Beetle (Coccinella novemnotata), spotless form, has white line connecting the two white patches on the pronotum, and a white patch between the eyes rather than two spots.


Three-banded Lady Beetle (Coccinella trifasciata), spotless form, has white line connecting the two white patches on the pronotum, and does not have a black suture (line down the back).
Print References
Belicek, J. 1976. Coccinellidae of western Canada and Alaska with analyses of the transmontane zoogeographic relationships between the fauna of British Columbia and Alberta (Insecta: Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Quaestiones Entomologicae, 12(4): 283-409. Full PDF
Works Cited
1.The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) of America North of Mexico
Robert D. Gordon. 1985. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, Vol. 93, No. 1.