Harmonia eucharis (Mulsant)

(Figs 90–94)

Ballia eucharis Mulsant, 1853a: 167; 1866: 191 (as Pelina).—Crotch 1874: 127; Weise 1895a: 132.

Harmonia eucharis: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1979: 71; Poorani 2002a: 331; Ren et al. 2009: 194; Yu 2010: 125.

Ballia christophori Mulsant, 1853a: 163; 1866: 188 (as Pelina).—Crotch 1874: 126; Gordon 1987: 14.

Ballia dianae Mulsant, 1853a: 164 .—Crotch 1874: 127; Gordon 1987: 15.

Ballia dianae var. saundersii Crotch, 1874: 127 .— Gordon 1987: 15.

Ballia brahmae Mulsant, 1853a: 164; 1866: 189 (as Pelina).— Korschefsky 1932: 278.

Ballia gustavi Mulsant, 1853a: 165; 1866: 190 (as Pelina).— Gordon 1987: 15.

Ballia montivaga Mulsant, 1853a: 167; 1866: 191 (as Pelina).—Crotch 1874: 127; Gordon 1987: 15.

Ballia testacea Mulsant, 1853a: 169; 1866: 192 (as Pelina).— Gordon 1987: 15.

Pelina mayeti Mulsant, 1866: 189 .—Crotch 1874: 127; Gordon 1987: 15.

Ballia mayeti var. perplexa Crotch, 1874: 128 .

Pelina zephyrinae Mulsant, 1866: 190 .—Crotch 1874: 128; Gordon 1987: 15.

Neda bayaderae Mulsant, 1866: 200 .—Crotch 1874: 127 (as Ballia).— Korschefsky 1932: 278; Gordon 1987: 15.

Diagnosis. Length: 6.50–10.50 mm; width: 5.70–7.70 mm. Form broad oval, dorsum convex and glabrous. Elytra pale yellowish brown, nominate form (Figs 91c, 93f, 94g, h) pale yellowish with 4–5 black spots on elytra; elytral pattern highly variable (Figs 90a, b, 91, 92), elytral variations include yellow without black spots, yellow with pale brown spots, pale brown with creamy yellow spots, yellow with basal two-thirds black, dark reddish brown with black lateral borders and other intermediate forms. Abdominal ventrite 5 and 6 emarginate in male, that of female medially projecting backwards and subtruncate, respectively. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete with a curved associated line (Fig. 90c). Male genitalia (Figs 90e–h), and spermatheca (Fig. 90d) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Life stages (Figs 93, 94) as illustrated.

Distribution. India: Very common in northeastern and northwestern region (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh); Himalayas; Pakistan; Bhutan; Nepal. Introduced in the USA (North Carolina) for the management of balsam woolly aphid ( Adelges piceae (Ratzeburg)), but did not establish.

Prey/associated habitat. Aphidoidea: Aphis cf. fabae Scopoli, Aphis cf. gossypii Glover, Aphis spiraecola Patch, Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach), Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus), Cervaphis quercus Takahashi, Cervaphis rappardi indica Basu, Cinara sp., Dreyfusia (as Adelges) knucheli (Schneider-Orelli & Schneider), Dysaphis sp., Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann), Eulachnus thunbergii Wilson, Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy), Macrosiphoniella pseudoartemisiae Shinji, Macrosiphoniella yomogifoliae (Shinji), Mollitrichosiphum alni Ghosh et al., Myzus persicae (Sulzer), Myzus varians Davidson, Myzus sp., Phorodon cannabis Passerini, Pineus sp., Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae (Linnaeus), Tuberculatus indicus Ghosh. Associated with Aphis craccivora Koch. Cicadellidae: Idioscopus shillongensis Viraktamath (Ghorpade 1979b) . Coccidae: Eulecanium tiliae (Linnaeus) (as E. coryli (Linnaeus)) .

Associated with aphids and/or scales infesting apple, peach, plum, quince, apricot, almond, cherry and Spiraea sp.; adelgids infesting silver fir, blue pine, and spruce. Most prevalent in coniferous forests and oak farms in the northeastern region; associated with Juglans regia, Alnus nitida, Alnus nepalensis, Quercus incana, Q. dilatata, Litsea polyantha, Clerodendron viscosum, Pinus khasya, Artemisia vulgaris, Colocasia antiquorum and Prunus sp.

Seasonal occurrence. Active during late March–August in north and northwestern India. Has only one generation per year; adults hibernate during winter months in northwestern region (Nagarkatti & Ghani 1972). Abundant on various species of aphids during October–November in northwestern and northeastern regions (Singh & Singh 1988).

Natural enemies. Phalacrotophora indiana Colyes and an indeterminate nematode (Nagarkatti & Ghani 1972).

Notes. It is highly polymorphic, as evident from the numerous varieties and synonyms. Numerous colour variants are found in nature and one variant is strikingly similar to a form of H. sedecimnotata (F.) (Fig. 102b). Ghani (1962) carried out breeding experiments and found that the various morphs interbred freely and concluded they were only varieties or colour forms of a single species.

Its biology on adelgids was studied in detail by Nagarkatti & Ghani (1972) who described and illustrated the immature stages. Ghani (1962), Ren et al. (2009) and Yu (2010) illustrated some of the common colour morphs. Phaloura & Singh (1991) studied the larval chaetotaxy and Singh & Phaloura (1990) provided a field key to the larval stages. Details of its biology, hosts and predatory potential are available in many publications (see Ghosh et al. 1976; Ghorpade 1979b; Chakrabarti et al. 1995; Phaloura & Singh 1993).