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Propylea quatuordecimpunctata (Linnaeus 1758) Fourteen-spotted Lady Beetle

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Higher taxa:  Life   Insecta   Coleoptera   Coccinellidae   Propylea   Global map IDnature guide: Ladybug We parsed the following live from the Web into this page. Such content is managed by its original site and not cached on Discover Life. Please send feedback and corrections directly to the source. See original regarding copyrights and terms of use. University of Guelph

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© Copyright photographer, 2008-2009 Propylea quatuordecimpunctata	© Copyright photographer, 2008-2009 Propylea quatuordecimpunctata

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Propylaea quatuordecimpunctata is a European lady beetle that was probably accidentally introduced to North America by shipping in the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1960’s. These distinctively coloured little (4 or 5mm) beetles did not show up in Ontario until the 1990s, and only became common in the late 1990’s. They are sometimes called Fourteen Spotted Lady Beetles, but that common name is also applied to another species that occurs in Ontario, the highly variable Calvia quatuordecimguttata. Calvia quatuordecimguttata is perhaps better referred to as the Cream Spotted Lady-beetle, which is the name used for this species in Britain. Common names, like the “fourteen spotted lady beetle” often refer to different species in different places, and lack the accuracy of scientific names. Both Calvia and Propylaea have only one species in North America, so you are being explicit enough by just by calling them “Propylaea” and “Calvia”. Calvia quatuordecimguttata occurs in a confusing variety of colour forms, but is most commonly a dark beetle with large, cream-coloured spots. It can always be distinguished from other other lady beetles by its shiny pronotum (the pronotum is the plate right behind the head).