Micraspis univittata (Hope)

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, Zootaxa 5332 (1), pp. 1-307 : 189-192

Micraspis univittata (Hope)

( Fig. 135 )

Coccinella univittata Hope, 1831: 31 (Lectotype male, BMNH; Type locality: Nepal).

Alesia univittata: Mulsant 1850: 357 ; 1866: 239.

Tytthaspis univittata: Korschefsky 1932: 384 .

Micraspis univittata: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 511 ; Poorani 2002: 335; Yu 2010: 130; Poorani et al. 2023: 463 .

Verania vincta Gorham, 1895: 686 .

Micraspis vincta: Sasaji 1968 c: 132 ; Chunram & Sasaji 1980: 488.

Diagnosis. Length: 3.00– 4.50 mm; width: 2.80–4.40 mm. Form ( Fig. 135a–e ) almost circular, dorsum convex and glabrous. Ground colour bright carmine red, orange or yellow, head and pronotum reddish or yellowish. Head with a transverse black macula on basal half, reaching up to posterior margin of eyes; pronotum with a transverse basal black macula and two discal spots above; elytra with a pair of thin curved black stripes, sometimes broken or faint, and a black sutural stripe. Abdominal postcoxal line incomplete ( Fig. 135f ). Ventrite 6 in female with a sclerotized oval median process ( Fig. 135g ). Male genitalia ( Fig. 135i–l ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 135h ) as illustrated.

Distribution. Widely distributed almost throughout India (Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Tripura); Bhutan; Nepal; China; Myanmar.

Prey/associated habitat. Aleyrodidae : Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) . Aphididae : Rice root aphid ( Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominalis (Sasaki)) , Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) . Crambidae :Eggs and young larvae of Chilo infuscatellus Snellen and Chilo sacchariphagus indicus (Kapur) ; Noctuidae : Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) ; Acari: Oligonychus coffeae (Nietner) on tea.

Commonly collected on rice and sugarcane; occasionally collected on cotton, groundnut, tea, potato and mustard. Attracted to light ( Ghorpade 1979a). Found in large numbers on rice crop in flowering stage in different parts of India (label data). Adults of M. univittata were found to feed on sugarcane pests, mainly aphid ( Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner)) and also shoot and internode borers in the laboratory (Easwaramoorthy et al. 2001).

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during April–May in northeastern region.

Notes. The species with three-striped elytra has been frequently identified as Micraspis vincta , a synonym of M. univittata , in the literature from India. Micraspis lineata (Thunberg) , endemic to New Guinea, has three-striped elytra and looks very similar to M. univittata , but the male genitalia are different. Kovář (2007: 620) listed ‘ Micraspis inops Mulsant 1866 ’ as a valid species and ‘M. vincta’ as its synonym. Iablokoff-Khnzorian (1982) incorrectly used the name Micraspis inops (Mulsant) for the widespread Indian species ( Poorani 2002a). Mulsant’s original type material is a Cheilomenes and inops is only a colour form of C. sexmaculata (R.G. Booth’s comments, in Poorani 2002a). Easwaramoorthy et al. (2001) studied its biology and predatory potential on sugarcane pests.

Figures

FIGURE 135. Micraspis univittata (Hope): a–d. live adult; e. adult, dorsal view; f. abdominal postcoxal line; g. terminal ventrites, female; h. spermatheca; i–l. male genitalia: i. tegmen, lateral view; j. tegmen, ventral view; k. penis; l. penis apex.