Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, Zootaxa 5332 (1), pp. 1-307 : 219-221

Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant

( Figs 155–157 )

Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant, 1866: 281 (Lectotype, UCCC; Type locality: “les Indes orientales”).

Oenopia sauzeti: Crotch 1874: 158 ; Kapur 1963: 27; Gordon 1987: 19; Yu 2010: 100–101; Poorani 2002a: 337; Poorani 2002b: 103; Poorani et al. 2015: 237.

Gyrocaria sauzeti: Miyatake 1967: 76 ; 1985: 15.

Diagnosis. Length: 3.40–4.60 mm; width: 2.76–3.60 mm. Form ( Figs 155a, b , 156f ) short oval, dorsum convex and glabrous. Head black in female, yellow in male. Ground colour of pronotum and elytra creamy yellow to bright lemon yellow with black markings. Pronotum with a hat–shaped black marking ( Fig. 155c ) on posterior margin, its posterolateral ends never reaching posterolateral corners of pronotum. Elytral pattern ( Fig. 155a, b ) as illustrated, median sutural spot broad, distinctly transverse-quadrate and rectangular, rarely with rounded edges. Antenna with antennomeres 9 and 10 distinctly transverse, antennal club short and compact ( Fig. 155e ). Elytral punctures distinct, interspaces between elytral punctures more or less smooth ( Fig. 155d ) to alutaceous, without any microsculpture. Male genitalia ( Fig. 155f, g ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 155h ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Eggs yellow and spindle shaped ( Fig. 157a ). Larva slaty grey to black with yellow maculation ( Fig. 157b–d ). Pupa black with yellow spots ( Fig. 157e ).

Distribution. Widely distributed in north and northeastern regions of India (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand); Eastern Himalayas; Bhutan; Pakistan; Nepal; Myanmar; Thailand; China; Laos; Vietnam; Taiwan.

More widely distributed than its closest relative, O. mimica . It is very common in all the northeastern states of India and in the northern region, it appears to be more prevalent in higher elevations and cooler climes and rarely found in the plains ( Poorani et al. 2015). It was introduced in North America for controlling balsam woolly aphid [ Adelges piceae (Ratzeburg) ], but did not establish (Amman & Speers 1964; Mitchell & Wright 1967).

Prey/associated habitat. It is mainly aphidophagous and also feeds on whiteflies. Aleyrodidae : Aleurolobus barodensis (Maskell) and Neomaskellia andropogonis Corbett. Aphidoidea : Adelges sp. , Aphis gossypii Glover , Aphis fabae Scopoli , Aphis kurosawai Takahashi , Aphis longisetosa Basu , Aphis spiraecola Patch , Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach) , Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) , Capitophorus hippophaeus javanicus Hille Ris Lambers , Capitophorus formosartemisiae (Takahashi) , Cavariella aegopodii (Scopoli) , Clethrobius dryobius Chakrabarti & Raychaudhuri , Coloradoa artemisicola Takahashi , Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann) , Hyadaphis coriandri (Das) , Liosomaphis atra Hille Ris Lambers , Macrosiphoniella pseudoartemisiae Shinji , Macrosiphoniella sanborni (Gillette) , Macrosiphoniella sp. , Macrosiphum rosae (Linnaeus) , Melanaphis donacis (Passerini) , Myzus obtusirostris David et al. , Myzus persicae (Sulzer) , Phorodon cannabis Passerini , Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus) , Sipha maydis Passerini , Schizaphis graminum (Rondani) , Sitobion avenae (Fabricius) , Sitobion rosaeiformis (Das) , Aphis (Toxoptera) aurantii Boyer de Fonscolombe ; Psyllidae : Arytaina sp. and Psylla sp. ; Cicadellidae : Evacanthus repexus Distant (Cicadellidae) . Acari: Tetranychus sp.

Collected on spruce, pine, maize, potato, Artemisia sp. , chrysanthemum, milk weed, silver fir, etc. (label data). Agarwala and Ghosh (1988) include O. mimica as a synonym of O. sauzeti in their list of host records for the latter, some of which might be erroneous.

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during January–February, March–July, and November–December from northwestern and eastern regions of India. Active during April–October in Pakistan, abundant during May–August ( Hayat et al. 2017).

Notes. Stebbing (1903) studied its life history and described and illustrated the larva and adult. Miyatake (1985), Poorani (2002) and Poorani et al. (2015) described it in detail with illustrations to separate it from O. mimica . Ghosh et al. (1986) studied its biology. Also treated by Ren et al. (2009) and Yu (2010).

Figures

FIGURE 155. Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant: a, b. adult, dorsal view; c. head and pronotum; d. elytral punctation (enlarged); e. antenna; f, g. male genitalia: f. tegmen, ventral view; g. penis; h. spermatheca.

FIGURE 156. Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant, life stages: a, b. eggs on silver fir; c. early stage larva; d. full grown larva; e. pupa; f. Oenopia mimica adult, misidentified as O. sauzeti (From the archives of the erstwhile Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control–Indian Station).

FIGURE 157. Oenopia sauzeti Mulsant, life stages: a. eggs; b–d. larva; e. pupa; f–h. adult.