Cycloneda sanguinea
| Cycloneda sanguinea | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mating pair | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Family: | Coccinellidae |
| Genus: | Cycloneda |
| Species: | C. sanguinea
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| Binomial name | |
| Cycloneda sanguinea | |
| Synonyms | |
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Coccinella sanguinea Linnaeus, 1763 | |
Cycloneda sanguinea, also known as the spotless lady beetle, is a widespread species of ladybird beetle in the Americas.
Distribution[edit]
Cycloneda sanguinea is the most widespread ladybird beetle in Latin America,[1] with it typically being found in plant-dense landscapes ranging from the southern United States to Argentina,[2] and eastward to the Cayman Islands.[3] There are several species of ladybeetle that look similar to the spotless ladybeetle[4]. On the Galápagos Islands, it lives in sympatry with its sister species, Cycloneda galapagensis.[2]
Description[edit]
Cycloneda sanguinea is a large ladybird beetle with red, unspotted elytra (wing covers) ranging from 4-6.5 mm long. The color ranges from orange to deep red. The white and black marks on the head and pronotum are very distinctive, and they are also gender-specific. Females and males both have white spots on the black part, but the female has black in the center, continuing down into the face, while the male has a white cleft above the head and a white face. These ladybugs are very often found feeding on aphids on milkweeds, but also occur on a number of other plants.[3]
Their eggs are typically orange or yellow in color and size in around 1 mm in diameter. The larvae are larger in size taking on a black color with yellow markings ranging up to 6 mm long. Furthermore, its pupae are a pale color that eventually turns brown or orange[5] and its pupae have the remarkable ability to "bite" potential predators using a device known as a "gin trap".[6]
Biological Control[edit]
Spotless ladybeetles typically share the same habitats with many aphids that damage crops and other plants. Spotless ladybeetles feed on these aphids making them a prime candidate for use in natural biological control. However, the use of the ladybeetle isn't necessarily a foolproof plan for protecting crops. For example, the analysis of the consumption of Toxoptera citricida by the spotless ladybeetle found that the consumption of said aphid significantly hinders the development of C. sanguinea larvae--completely killing the larvae after its third development stage[7]. Such a study proves that some aphids are toxic to the spotless ladybeetle, rendering them useless in some aspects of natural biological control.
There have been several investigations into ways of improving biological control by using other means in unison with the spotless lady beetles. Some basic examples of these include reducing the amount of dust on plant leaves, introducing "control ants" to feed on the aphids, and growing flowering plants that attract other natural predators of the aphids[8].
The use of neem seed oil has also been investigated as a potential natural pesticide to enhance biological control alongside spotless lady beetles. A particular study conducted in 2004 by Neotropical Entomology investigated neem oil's effects on the ladybeetle when the eggs, larvae, and adults were directly sprayed with oil. Overall, the study found that lower concentrations of neem seed oil did not affect the mortality rate of the spotless ladybeetle at any stage, while a higher concentration of 5 milliliters of oil per 1 liter of water only saw significantly higher mortality rates in larvae[9]. With little effect on the survivorship and overall fitness of Cycloneda sanguinea, neem seed oil seems to be a promising natural alternative pesticide.
References[edit]
- ^ Charles Leonard Hogue (1993). "Ladybird beetles". Latin American Insects and Entomology. University of California Press. pp. 275–276. ISBN 978-0-520-07849-9.
- ^ a b Stewart Blaine Peck (2006). "Family Coccinellidae. The Ladybird Beetles". The Beetles of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity (Insecta: Coleoptera). NRC monograph publishing program. NRC Research Press. pp. 200–205. ISBN 978-0-660-19421-9.
- ^ a b R. R. Askew (1994). "Insects of the Cayman Islands". In M. A. Brunt & J. E. Davies (ed.). The Cayman Islands: Natural History and Biogeography. Volume 71 of Monographiae Biologicae. Springer. pp. 333–356. ISBN 978-0-7923-2462-1.
- ^ "Spotless Lady Beetle". UC IPM. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ "Spotless Lady Beetle". UC IPM. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ Thomas Eisner, Maria Eisner & Melody Siegler (2005). "Cycloneda sanguinea. A ladybird beetle". Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and Other Many-legged Creatures. Harvard University Press. pp. 206–210. ISBN 978-0-674-01882-2.
- ^ Morales, José; Burandt, Charles L. (1985-08-01). "Interactions Between Cycloneda sanguinea and the Brown Citrus Aphid: Adult Feeding and Larval Mortality". Environmental Entomology. 14 (4): 520–522. doi:10.1093/ee/14.4.520. ISSN 1938-2936.
- ^ "Spotless Lady Beetle". UC IPM. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ Blaustein, M. P. (January 1976). "Barbiturates block calcium uptake by stimulated and potassium-depolarized rat sympathetic ganglia". The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 196 (1): 80–86. ISSN 0022-3565. PMID 1519.
External links[edit]
Media related to Cycloneda sanguinea at Wikimedia Commons
- Salgado-Neto, Geraldo; Vaz, Marcos André Braz; Guedes, Jerson Vanderlei Carús; Muniz, Marlove Fátima Brião; Blume, Elena; Wilcken, Carlos Frederico; Castro, Bárbara Monteiro de Castro e; Plata-Rueda, Angelica; Zanuncio, José Cola (5 February 2018). "Dispersion of the soybean root rot by Cycloneda sanguinea (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 2409. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.2409S. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20587-8. PMC 5799320. PMID 29402912.
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