Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius)

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 : 142-146

Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius)

( Figs 99–101 )

Coccinella octomaculata Fabricius, 1781: 97 (Lectotype female, BMNH; Type locality not specified).

Harmonia octomaculata: Mader 1932: 215 ; Bielawski 1957: 93; 1964a: 5; Sasaji 1971; 280; Pope 1989: 685; Poorani 2002a: 331; Yu 2010: 122.

Ptychanatis octomaculata: Kamiya 1965b: 59 .

Coccinella arcuata Fabricius, 1787: 55 .—Crotch 1874: 110; Korschefsky 1932: 440.

Coccinella arcuata var. octomaculata: Korschefsky 1932: 441 .

Harmonia arcuata var. octomaculata: Mulsant 1850: 80 .

Harmonia arcuata: Mulsant 1850: 177 ; 1866: 59; Crotch 1871: 3; Timberlake 1943: 18; Miyatake 1965: 60.

Harmonia octomaculata var. arcuata: Mader 1932: 217 .

Diagnosis. Length: 4.60–7.50 mm; width: 3.50–5.50 mm. Form ( Fig. 99a ) elongate oval, dorsum moderately convex and glabrous. Ground colour orange yellow or red with black markings on head, pronotum and elytra, colour pattern highly variable with various degrees of fusion or reduction of the pronotal and elytral maculae ( Fig. 100 ). Head ( Fig. 99b ) with a pair of black maculae posteriorly. Antenna ( Fig. 99c ) longer than frons with a compact club, terminal antennomere strongly transverse. Elytra with external margins narrow forming a distinct gutter along the humeral angle. Abdominal postcoxal line ( Fig. 99d ) incomplete, short and connected with a curved associated line. Males with posterior margin of ventrite 5 and 6 truncate and shallowly emarginate, respectively. Females with posterior margin of ventrite 5 medially produced and arcuate, ventrite 6 with a median raised area, posteriorly curved. Male genitalia ( Fig. 99g –i ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 99e, f ) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Larva black with yellow or orange spots on abdominal segments 1 and 4 ( Fig. 101a–d ), pupa orange or yellow with black maculation ( Fig. 101e, f ).

Prey/associated habitat. Adelgidae : Indeterminate adelgids on silver fir. Aphididae : Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) , Aiceona litseae Basu & Hille Ris Lambers , Aphis craccivora Koch , Aphis gossypii Glover , Aphis rumicis Linnaeus , Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner , Geoica lucifuga (Zehntner) , Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) , Myzus nicotianae Blackman , Myzus persicae (Sulzer) , Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) , Tuberculatus indicus Ghosh. Cicadellidae : Empoascanara indica (Datta) , Nephotettix nigropictus (Stål) . Delphacidae : Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) , Perkinsiella saccharicida Kirkaldy , Sogatella furcifera (Horvath) . Pseudococcidae : Planococcus citri (Risso) . Lepidoptera : Pyralidae : Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenée) , Marasmia patnalis Bradley , Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée) , and Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker) . Thysanoptera : Thripidae : Stenchaetothrips biformis (Bagnall) .

One of the most common coccinellids in rice ecosystem; also collected on cowpea, maize, sorghum, finger millet, sugarcane, melon, cabbage, cauliflower, pigeonpea, tobacco, Cassia auriculata , Crotolaria mucronata , and Quercus serrata . Attracted to light (Ghorpade, 1979).

Distribution. India: Very common in peninsular and northeastern regions (Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh); Bangladesh; Bhutan; Sri Lanka; Nepal; Pakistan; Myanmar; China; Taiwan; Japan; Southeast Asia; Papua New Guinea; Micronesia; Australia; New Zealand; Hawaii.

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during March–August and October–December from southern and northeastern India.

Natural enemies. Dinocampus coccinellae (Schrank) , Homalotylus flaminius (Dalman) , Coccipolipus sp.

Notes. It is one of the well-studied species of the Indian region. Puttarudriah & Channabasavanna (1953, 1956) gave biological notes. Kapur (1956 c) illustrated the elytral pattern variations. Bielawski (1957), Sasaji (1971), Pope (1989), Ren et al. (2009), Yu (2010) and most recently, Ślipiński et al. (2020), have given descriptive accounts and illustrations. Sasaji (1977) described the larva.

Figures

FIGURE 99. Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius): a. adult, dorsal view; b. head; c. antenna; d. abdominal postcoxal line; e, f. spermatheca; g–i. male genitalia: g. tegmen, ventral view; h. penis; i. penis apex.

FIGURE 100. Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius): a–k. polymorphic forms.

FIGURE 101. Harmonia octomaculata (Fabricius), life stages: a–d. larva; e, f. pupa; g–i. live adult, variants.