Hippodamia variegata at Black Range, NSW

Spotted Amber Ladybird at Black Range, NSW

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Identification history

	Hippodamia variegata	26 Sep 2020	KimPullen
	Adalia punctata	15 Sep 2020	StephH

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User's notes

I found this introduced ladybird referred to as punctata in Roger Farrow's book of 2016, but can't find other uses of that species name.

5 comments

JackieMiles wrote:

17 Sep 2020

Interesting - it does look very like Roger's illustration, but we have had this thing ID'd as Hippodamia variegata in the past. Have to leave it to Kim to sort out.

StephH wrote:

17 Sep 2020

Well I never! I agree that it looks very similar. Maybe the classification has changed. Yes, hope Kim can help.

KimPullen wrote:

18 Oct 2020

The species captioned as 'Adalia punctata' (in error for Adalia bipunctata) in Roger's book is in fact Hippodamia variegata. A. bipunctata was deliberately introduced to Australia as an aphid control agent, but there are doubts about whether it has established. It has only two black spots on the elytra, see https://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/ladybirds/big_images/species/adaliBipunctataDor.jpg . Hippodamia variegata is also exotic here, but its introduction to Australia was not intentional.

JackieMiles wrote:

20 Oct 2020

Great, thanks for clearing that up Kim.

StephH wrote:

21 Oct 2020

A complex story to identify one little ladybird. Thanks for taking the time to explain it, Kim.

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