Oenopia mimica Weise

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 : 214

Oenopia mimica Weise

( Fig. 151 )

Oenopia mimica Weise, 1902: 505 (Holotype, ZMB; Type locality: ‘ India Orient.’).

Oenopia mimica: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1979: 70 (as synonym of O. sauzeti ); Mader 1935: 343; Poorani 2002a: 337; Poorani 2002b: 104; Poorani et al. 2015: 238.

Gyrocaria mimica: Miyatake 1985: 16 .

Oenopia sauzeti sensu Kapur 1958: 331 .

Diagnosis. Length:3.00– 4.30 mm; width: 2.95–3.10 mm.Form( Fig. 151a, b ) short oval, dorsum convex and glabrous. Head black in female, yellow in male. Ground colour of pronotum and elytra bright lemon yellow to creamy yellow; pronotum with a black, hat-shaped macula ( Fig. 151c ) on posterior margin, its outer edges posteriorly extended, touching posterolateral corners of pronotum; elytral pattern as illustrated, with a median sutural marking that is distinctly elongate, gradually dilated and oval in the middle, narrowed towards both ends. Antenna 11-segmented ( Fig. 151e ), antennomeres 9 and 10 only slightly broader than long or nearly as broad as long with an elongate club. Elytral punctation ( Fig. 151d ) distinctive with conspicuous microsculpture in interspaces between elytral punctures. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete with a short oblique associated line ( Fig. 151f ). Male genitalia ( Fig.151h, i ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 151g ) as illustrated.

Oenopia mimica and O. sauzeti Mulsant share the same overall external color scheme and the pronotal and elytral markings are superficially similar. The elytral pattern in O. mimica is also similar to that of the nominate form of O. smetanai Canepari (1997) , another species distributed in the Nepal and Indian Himalayas. Oenopia smetanai is a rare species apparently endemic to the Eastern Himalayas and it has a variable elytral pattern. The nominate form of O. smetanai can be distinguished from O. mimica by its much smaller size (only 2.8–3.0 mm long), pronotum with a pair of oblique oval median spots and the male genitalia.

Distribution. India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal); Bhutan; Nepal; Myanmar; Laos.

Prey/associated habitat. Hemiptera : Adelgidae : Adelges sp. on silver fir, spruce, and other coniferous trees; unidentified aphids on Artemisia sp. ; Taoia indica (Ghosh & Raychaudhuri) (label data). Feeds on aphids infesting Bidens pilosa and Artemisia vulgaris in Nepal ( Sajan et al. 2019). In Agarwala & Ghosh (1988), O. mimica is listed as a synonym of O. sauzeti and some of the host records of O. sauzeti are likely to be erroneous.

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during May–June, October–November (northwestern region); June–October ( Nepal Himalayas). Active during April–October in Pakistan ( Hayat et al. 2017).

Notes. Kapur (1958) illustrated the habitus and the male genitalia as O. sauzeti . Miyatake (1985) and Poorani et al. (2015) described and illustrated it. Poorani et al. (2015) provided brief diagnostic descriptions for both species and generated barcodes for separating them.

Figures

FIGURE 151. Oenopia mimica Weise: a, b. adult, dorsal view; c. pronotal macula; d. elytral punctation (enlarged); e. antenna; f. abdominal postcoxal line; g. spermatheca; h, i. male genitalia: h. tegmen, ventral view; i. penis.