Yellow Shouldered Ladybird - Scymnodes lividigaster
FAMILY COCCINELLIDAE
This page contains information and pictures about Yellow Shouldered Ladybird Beetles that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 4mm
- Yellow Shouldered Ladybird Beetles have a yellow dot on each side of their thorax, some have a yellow face but some others have a dark face. All of them have their forewings in dark blue colour and covered with fine yellowish to white hairs. They are small in size.
- The adults and larvae are predator of aphids. We usually find them near the Cowpea Aphids and Milkweed Aphids. Ladybirds are either feeding on aphids or looking for a place to lay eggs. They lay a batch of eggs, about eight at a time, on the surface of a leaf. The eggs are creamy yellow in colour.
The Yellow Shouldered Ladybird larvae have long sharp mandibles and is feeding on Cowpea Aphids. They are elongate and slightly oblong in shape. They are adorned with spines.
The larvae takes about five minutes to consume a medium size aphid. When a aphid is found, the ladybirds larvae bites the aphid on the top of its head. The aphid responses with kicking but ladybird larvae does not worry at all. Then the aphid hold very tight at where it is sitting. The ladybirds larvae starts kicking back to the aphid's legs and body while still biting its head. A minute or so, the aphid stop moving and the ladybird larvae hold it up, as showing in the above picture. The ladybird larvae sucks the juice and the aphid's soft body collapses very quickly. After about five minutes, the ladybird larvae drop the empty aphids shell and looks for another aphid. The aphids near by seem do not notice or worry what is happening.
A ladybird larvae undergo four instars before pupating. It takes about 10 days. A fully grown larvae is about 10mm long. Before pupating, it find a suitable place, usually on a leaf near the stem tip. The larvae then makes a circle with waxy substance around itself, as shown in the above picture. Then the larvae starts to turn into a pupa.
The about pictures show the sequence of pupating. After the last moulting, the pupa is yellow in colour. It become darken after a few hours.
Usually we find a number of ladybirds pupate in a favorites location. In the about picture, there were four pupa, one of them just started the pupating. About a week later, they became ladybird adults. The second pictures was taken a week later. Some more members joined the favorites site. Two of them already hatched and gone. One just hatched and one new comer.
- Reference:
- 1. Genera of Coccinellidae - The University of Queensland Insect Collection, 2004
- 2. Yellowshoulder Ladybird - Biodiversity Database, The Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, 2005.
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