Propylea luteopustulata (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 : 245-251

Propylea luteopustulata (Mulsant)

( Figs 176–179 )

Oenopia (Pania) luteopustulata Mulsant, 1850: 421 (Holotype, OUM; Type locality: Assam, India).

Pania luteopustulata: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1979: 58 ; 1982: 132.

Coelophora luteopustulata: Crotch 1874: 156 ; Sicard 1913: 500.

Oenopia luteopustulata: Korschefsky 1932: 288 ; Miyatake 1967: 77.

Propylea luteopustulata: Vandenberg & Gordon 1991: 30 ; Poorani 2002a: 340.

Oenopia luteopustulata a. thibetina: Mader 1926 ( 1935): 340.

Oenopia luteopustulata var. thibetina: Kapur 1958: 329 .

Oenopia pracuae Weise, 1891: 286 .

Oenopia luteopustulata a. pracui: Mader 1926 ( 1935): 340.

Oenopia luteopustulata a. pracuae: Kapur 1958: 329 .

Coelophora pedicata Mulsant, 1853a: 180 .

Oenopia luteopustulata var. subpedicata Kapur, 1958: 333 .

Diagnosis. Length: 4.20–5.16 mm; width: 3.54–4.35 mm. Form ( Fig. 176a ) broad oval to slightly elongate oval, dorsum moderately convex and glabrous. Ground colour red to orange yellow, with black markings on head, pronotum and elytra. Head yellow, with a transverse black marking in posterior half. Pronotum with a transverse black band along posterior margin, rarely with four black spots. Elytral pattern highly variable ( Fig. 178c–n ); with an anchor-shaped black marking ( Fig. 177a ) very similar to that in P. dissecta in various states of reduction ( Fig. 178c–f, m, n ) / with broken lines ( Fig. 176a ) / with 10–11 elytral spots ( Fig. 178g –l ) / with immaculate elytra ( Fig. 177b ). Male genitalia ( Fig. 176b–e ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 177c, d ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Life stages ( Figs 178a, b ; 179 ) as illustrated.

Distribution. India: Widely distributed in the northern and northeastern regions and the Himalayas (Andaman Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal); Nepal; Bhutan; Pakistan; Myanmar; China; Thailand; Tibet; Taiwan; Vietnam.

Prey/associated habitat. Hemiptera: Aphidoidea : Adelges spp. , Aphis fabae Scopoli , Aphis craccivora Koch , Aphis gossypii Glover , Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach) , Brevicoryne brassicae (L.), Capitophorus formosartemisiae (Takahashi) , Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann) , Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy) , Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Kaltenbach) , Macrosiphoniella sanborni (Gillette) , Macrosiphum rosae (Linnaeus) , Myzus persicae (Sulzer) , Pineus sp. , Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) , Sitobion rosaeiformis (Das) , and Tuberculatus indicus Ghosh. Associated with adelgids feeding on silver fir and pine; indeterminate aphids on Artemisia sp. , Spiraea sp. (label data). Found feeding on aphids infesting Galinsoga parviflora and Bidens pilosa along with P. luteopustulata ( Sajan et al. 2019) .

Seasonal occurrence. Active during February–June; collected during September–December.

Notes. This is the most common species of Propylea along with P. dissecta in the northeastern region of India and is highly variable. See Vandenberg & Gordon (1991) and Kovář (2007) for extralimital synonyms not listed here. See Kapur (1958), Bielawski (1972), Vandenberg & Gordon (1991), Ren et al. (2009) and Yu (2010) for more illustrations of elytral pattern variations and genitalia and list of synonyms.

Figures

FIGURE 176. Propylea luteopustulata (Mulsant): a. adult, dorsal view; b–e. male genitalia: b. tegmen, lateral view; c. tegmen, ventral view; d. penis; e. penis apex.

FIGURE 177. Propylea luteopustulata (Mulsant): a, b. adult, variants (BMNH); c. female genitalia; d. spermatheca (enlarged).

FIGURE 178. Propylea luteopustulata (Mulsant), life stages: a, b. larva; c–n. adult, variants.

FIGURE 179. Propylea luteopustulata (Mulsant), life stages: a, b. eggs; c. early stage larva; d. mature larva; e. pupa; f. adult.