Hippodamia sinuata (Mulsant, 1850)[]
Arthropods (Arthropoda)-----Insects (Insecta)----Beetles (Coleoptera)-----Polyphaga-----Cucujoidea-----Ladybirds (Coccinellidae)-----Hippodamia----H. sinuata
1st September, 2008.
1st September, 2008.
1st September, 2008.
1st September, 2008.
The Sinuate ladybird is another species with great variation in its markings, it is very similar to the Convergent ladybird but is smaller and thinner, also the markings are less variable and larger in the Convergent ladybird; the pattern is almost always like this. This species is a more prairie kind of ladybird, and can be found from Edmonton south in dry meadow and prairie habitats.
On one day late in the season I came across hundreds of these along with Parenthesis and Seven-spotted ladybirds along a scrubland habitat, the day before and the day after that there were none at all, not a single one. A way to help identify Sinuate/Convergent is if you have a Parenthesis ladybird nearby; Sinuate ladybirds are vaguely smaller and Convergent ladybirds are larger than the Parenthesis. This can be described as a smaller, fainter-marked Convergent. In some other places the Sinuate ladybird have all the spots fused into a line along the elytra; Link here; Bug Guide.
