Four-spot ladybug
| Four-spot ladybug | ||||||||||||
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Four-spot ladybird ( Harmonia quadripunctata ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Harmonia quadripunctata | ||||||||||||
| ( Pontoppidan , 1763) |
The four-point ladybird or head-four-point ladybird ( Harmonia quadripunctata ) is a beetle from the ladybird family (Coccinellidae).
features
The beetles are 5.5 to six millimeters long. They are yellowish or light red in color and each have eight black or light points with further black, often only indistinctly recognizable, smaller points on the wings (elytra). In addition, light lines are distributed between the points. The beetles get their name from the four large black dots visible on the bright pronotum , which sometimes merge into lines. There are also other small black dots. The puncturing of the wing covers is variable, the points can merge with each other or be completely absent. The maximum number of points is eight per Elytre.
Occurrence
The animals are found in pine forests (from the lowlands to the hill country) from southern northern Europe to southern Europe . The four-point ladybird is only found sporadically in the British Isles . In Asia Minor , the species is also based.
Way of life
The four-spot ladybug hunts various types of aphids such as B. Pineus pini and Cinara pilicornis . The beetles can often be found near artificial light sources. They mainly sit on pines and overwinter in groups under the bark of various deciduous and coniferous trees such as pines and poplars .
literature
- Bernhard Klausnitzer , Hertha Klausnitzer: Ladybirds (Coccinellidae) , Westarp Sciences 1997, ISBN 3-894-32812-6
- Volker Nötzold: Ladybird, identification key , German Youth Association for Nature Observations 1997, ISBN 3-923-37620-0
- Jiři Zahradník, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung et al .: Käfer Central and Northwestern Europe , Parey Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1
Web links
- www.insektenbox.de
- Harmonia quadripunctata in Fauna Europaea