from Glasgow Museums BRC: The history and current status of the
[email protected] orange ladybird Halyzia In the account below, the following acronyms are used: sedecimguttata (Linnaeus, 1758) in BRC: Biological Record Centre CP: Country Park the Clyde area in the UK context LNR: Local Nature Reserve (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) NBN: National Biodiversity Network NMS: National Museum of Scotland Richard B Weddle SSSI: Site of Special Scientific Interest 89 Novar Drive, Glasgow G12 9SS - and the scientific name of the orange ladybird is E-mail:
[email protected] abbreviated to H. 16-guttata METHODS The orange ladybird is a distinctive insect having ABSTRACT orange elytra usually with eight irregular white (or off- Records of orange ladybird Halyzia sedecimguttata white) spots on each. However rather darker from the Clyde area in the past ten years are reviewed specimens, perhaps with only fourteen spots clearly in the context of earlier records from the area. This visible, can resemble paler specimens of the cream- species appears now to be much more common and spot ladybird Calvia quattuordecimguttata which is widespread, and this increase appears to be linked to a normally a mahogany colour, and generally has new association with Acer spp., particularly sycamore. fourteen spots. These findings are discussed in the light of a similar The easiest way to distinguish them in the field is to increase which appears to have occurred in England check the alignment of the spots: the cream-spot some years earlier. ladybird, generally has a (transverse) row of 6 spots behind the two at the bases of the elytra; in the orange INTRODUCTION ladybird, the spots can only aligned in arcs, and none Recent reports in The Glasgow Naturalist of sightings of these includes more than 4 spots.