''Adalia decempunctata'', the ten-spotted ladybird or ten-spotted lady beetle, is a carnivorous
beetle of the family
Coccinellidae
Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...
.
The ten-spotted ladybird was one of the many species originally described by
Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
'', its original name was ''Coccinella decempunctata''. Its specific name from the
Latin ''decem'' "ten", and ''punctata'' "spotted".
Varietas
Varietas include:
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. lutea ''
(Rossi)
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. quattuorpunctata''
(Linnaeus)
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. octopunctata''
Müller
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. lateripunctata''
Gradl.
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. humeralis''
Schaller
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. guttatopunctata''
(Linnaeus)
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. decempustulata ''
(Linnaeus)
* ''Adalia decempunctata var. bipustulata''
Herbst
Distribution
''Adalia decempunctata'' is a common
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
species found in
Europe,
North Africa,
European Russia
European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...
, the
Caucasus,
Siberia,
Belarus,
Ukraine,
Moldova,
Transcaucasia and western Asia.
[
]
Description
''Adalia decempunctata'' can reach a body length of about . This species is highly variable. Individuals may in fact have a red, orange or brown ground colour and between 0 and 12 distinct dark elytral spots, although rarely more spots have been recorded, up to 15 spots. These beetles have a glabrous body, with an almost round form. Legs and antennae are usually brown or orange.
The species includes eight varietas, with three basic forms. The light form shows five to seven black spots on the pronotum and several black spots on the red-orange elytra. The dark form is mainly black or brown in color, and the pronotum has a light border on the sides and front. The mixed form has black or brown in color elytra, each with five orange to red spots. Sometimes these ladybirds have no spots at all.
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
The Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Transnistri ...
, 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.
The insects feed on aphids on trees and bushes.[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) ]n Russian
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
The adults overwinter in litter and among fallen leaves.
Gallery
File:Adalia decempunctata (10-spot ladybird) - f. decempunctata - Flickr - S. Rae (3).jpg, ''Adalia decempunctata decempunctata''
File: 10-spot ladybird (Adalia decempunctata) Cumnor.jpg, ''Adalia decempunctata var. bipustulata''
File:10-spot ladybird (RL) (26753783571).jpg, ''Adalia decempunctata var. octopunctata''
File:10-spot Ladybird. Adalia 10-punctata - Flickr - gailhampshire.jpg, ''Adalia decempunctata var. guttatopunctata''
File:Adalia decempunctata (2007-03-31).jpg, Dark variant
File:Adalia decempunctata (2007-03-11).jpg, Unusual form
File: Coccinellidae - Adalia decempunctata.JPG, Unusual form
File:Adalia decempunctata 19.JPG, Unusual form
References
Beetles of Europe
Beetles described in 1758
Coccinellidae
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
{{Coccinellidae-stub