Exochomus quadripustulatus, common name Pine ladybird, is a species of beetle of the Coccinellidae family.
Exochomus quadripustulatus can reach a length of about 4-6 millimeters. It is almost circular, convex and shining, with a flange around the base. The color is quite variable and may change with age. Usually the elytra are black with two larger red comma-shaped spots and two smaller round red spots. The color of these spots can also be orange or yellow, but completely reddish brown specimens may occur.
This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic, and in the Near East. It was first recorded in Ireland (County Armagh) in 2014. It was introduced to San Francisco between 1915 and 1930 to control the hemlock woolly adelgid, and has since spread across the west coast of North America from California to British Columbia. It is also present in Massachusetts. This fairly common ladybug can be found from April to October especially on conifers and in areas with deciduous trees.
The pine ladybird in both adult and larval stages preys on aphids and scale insects, especially Diaspidiotus perniciosus. Adults overwinter. E. quadripustulatus has strong potential as a biological control in Italy by being a candidate predator of Toumeyella parvicornis, an alien pest that infests stone pines; it has been observed to be more attracted to conspecific and heterospecific ladybugs than Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, another candidate predator, and responds to prey more quickly.
“Exochomus quadripustulatus”. Taxonomy Browser. National Center for Biotechnology Information. NCBI:txid115346. (This database is described in: Schoch, Conrad L; Ciufo, Stacy; Domrachev, Mikhail; Hotton, Carol L; Kannan, Sivakumar; Khovanskaya, Rogneda; Leipe, Detlef; Mcveigh, Richard; O’Neill, Kathleen; Robbertse, Barbara; Sharma, Shobha; Soussov, Vladimir; Sullivan, John P; Sun, Lu; Turner, Seán (2020). “NCBI Taxonomy: a comprehensive update on curation, resources and tools”. Database. 2020. Oxford University Press. Article ID baaa062. doi:10.1093/database/baaa062. ISSN 1758-0463. PMC 7408187. PMID 32761142.) “Viervleklieveheersbeestje : Brumus quadripustulatus Linnaeus”. Stippen.nl. Archived from the original on 2018-11-28. “Pine Ladybird - Exochomus quadripustulatus”. NatureSpot : wildlife and wild places of Leicestershire & Rutland. Isidro (November 9, 2011). “Brumus quadripustulatus”. Biodiversidad Online :: Fichas de Especies Identificadas :: Fichas de Coleópteros. El Árbol de la Vida. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.
Vandenberg, Natalia J. (2002). “Family 93; Coccinellidae Latreille 1807”. In Arnett, R.H., Jr.; Thomas, M. C.; Skelley, P. E.; Frank, J. H. (eds.). Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. American Beetles. Vol. 2. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press LLC. pp. 371–389. doi:10.1201/9781420041231. ISBN 978-0-429-12771-7. Google Books YiPNBQAAQBAJ.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) Arnett, Ross H. (2000). American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico. CRC Press. p. 462. Google Books DKzAmSDdLtsC. Kovář, Ivo (1995). “Revision of the Genera Brumus Muls. and Exochomus Redtb. (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of the Palaearctic Region. Part I.” Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae. 44: 5–124. White, Richard E. (1983). A Field Guide to the Beetles of North America. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Vol. 29. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 235–237. ISBN 9780395318089. Google Books 7eMQAQAAMAAJ, oD0lAQAAMAAJ. HathiTrust 000780227. Gordon, Robert D. (1985). “The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) of America North of Mexico”. Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 93 (1): 19, 31, 623–624, 636–638. JSTOR 25009452.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Exochomus quadripustulatus the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.
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