Adalia decempunctata

Adalia decempunctata, the ten-spotted ladybird or ten-spotted lady beetle, is a carnivorous beetle of the family Coccinellidae.

Ten-spotted lady beetle
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Coleoptera
Family:
Coccinellidae
Genus:
Adalia
Species:
A. decempunctata
Binomial name
Adalia decempunctata

The ten-spotted ladybird was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae, its original name was Coccinella decempunctata.[1] Its specific name from the Latin decem "ten", and punctata "spotted".[2]

A highly variable species, individuals may in fact bear anywhere from 0 to 15 spots.

  • Dark variant
  • Forma typica

Distribution

Adalia decempunctata is a common Palearctic species found in Europe, North Africa, European Russia, the Caucasus, Siberia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Transcaucasia and western Asia.[3][4]

Biology

It occurs in western European broadleaf forests eastern deciduous forests, Sarmatic mixed forests, at forest edges, and in parks and gardens wastelands and in Eurasian Steppe, Pannonian Steppe biotopes. It is found on bushes and deciduous trees, on grasses, under bark, in moss on trees, in leaf litter, on brushwood, coarse woody debris and in alluvial soil.[5]

The insects feed on aphids on trees and bushes.[6] The adults overwinter in litter and among fallen leaves.

References
  1. Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata (in Latin). Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii).
  2. Simpson, D. P. (1979). Cassell's Latin Dictionary (5 ed.). London: Cassell Ltd. ISBN 0-304-52257-0.
  3. N. B. Nikitsky and A. S. Ukrainsky, 2016 The Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of Moscow Province ISSN 0013-8738, Entomological Review, 2016, Vol. 96, No. 6, pp. 710–735 ISSN 0013-8738 online pdf
  4. Fauna Europaea
  5. Koch, K., Die Käfer Mitteleuropas, Ökologie. Vol. 2 (Goecke und Evers Verlag, Krefeld, 1989).
  6. Savoiskaya, G. I., Coccinellid Larvae (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of the Fauna of the USSR (Nauka, Leningrad Branch, Leningrad, 1983) (Keys to the Fauna of the USSR, Published by the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, No. 137) [in Russian].
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