Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, the nine-spot­ted lady bee­tle, was his­tor­i­cally one of the most preva­lent la­dy­bird bee­tle species in its range. It was found through­out the Nearc­tic re­gion in the United States and south­ern Canada. How­ever, its range has sig­nif­i­cantly di­min­ished in re­cent years, par­tic­u­larly in the United States. A sur­vey in 2009 found only a few spec­i­mens in west­ern and cen­tral United States. An­other sur­vey con­ducted by the USDA An­i­mal and Plant Health In­spec­tion Ser­vice in 1993 found no Coc­cinella novem­no­tata in thir­teen North­east­ern states, though a sin­gle spec­i­men was found in 2006 in Vir­ginia, the first to be spot­ted in 14 years in the east­ern states. (Gor­don, 1985; Har­mon, et al., 2007; Hes­ler, et al., 2009)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata is found on agri­cul­tural land and lives on var­i­ous crops such as al­falfa, clover, corn, cot­ton, pota­toes and soy­beans. These bee­tles can also be found on a va­ri­ety of non-agri­cul­tural veg­e­ta­tion in wooded habi­tats, grass­lands and sub­ur­ban areas. A sur­vey con­ducted found that C. novem­no­tata is highly likely to be liv­ing in na­tional parks, though the rea­son for this is un­known. (Gor­don, 1985; Har­mon, et al., 2007; Hes­ler, et al., 2009)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata typ­i­cally has nine spots, which gives it its name (novem- nine in Latin), al­though there are spot­less forms which may be con­fused with Coc­cinella johnsi. They are red, oval-shaped and range from 4.7 to 7.0 mm. They range in size (area of their ely­tra) from 24.36 to 37.66 sq. mm. Coc­cinella novem­no­tata has a broad head with a pale band be­tween its eyes that is pos­te­ri­orly and an­te­ri­orly black. The an­te­rior mar­gin of the prono­tum is pale as well. There is a large ven­tral pale spot that is trape­zoidal, ex­tend­ing pos­te­ri­orly as far as the dor­sal spot. The ely­tra have black spots that get smaller in size and in num­ber until the scutel­lar spot.

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata eggs are usu­ally or­ange to bright yel­low in color. Eggs that are vi­able re­tain this color while non-vi­able eggs shrivel and be­come dark brown or black within 2 to 3 days. (Gor­don, 1985; Losey, et al., 2012)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry
• polymorphic
• poisonous

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range length

  4.7 to 7.0 mm

  0.19 to 0.28 in

De­vel­op­ment

Lar­vae of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata hatch from eggs after ap­prox­i­mately four days. The lar­vae un­dergo four in­stars be­fore pu­pat­ing, meta­mor­phos­ing, and reach­ing adult­hood. It takes an av­er­age of four to five days for Coc­cinella novem­no­tata to reach its third-in­star. After ap­prox­i­mately seven more days, the lar­vae spend one day in a pre-pu­pal stage where they stop eat­ing and ap­pear very slug­gish. The lar­vae then pu­pate. After four days, adults emerge. After one day, the ely­tra on the adult Coc­cinella novem­no­tata hard­ens. (Losey, et al., 2012)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis
• diapause

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is not avail­able lit­er­a­ture that de­scribes the mat­ing sys­tems of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, but there is re­search that de­scribes the mat­ing sys­tems of the very sim­i­lar Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata. Males of Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata ex­hibit a five step courtship dis­play. They first ap­proach a fe­male, watch, then ex­am­ine, mount and at­tempt cop­u­la­tion. Fe­males who are not sex­u­ally ma­ture, have re­cently mated, or are about to oviposit, ex­hibit a dis­play of re­jec­tion to­wards the male. Males rec­og­nize fe­male mates based on chem­i­cal and vi­sual cues, such as size and fe­male body shape. It is pos­si­ble that the chem­i­cal cues play a larger role in at­tract­ing a male than the vi­sual cues. Males may mate mul­ti­ple times in one day. It is pos­si­ble, though not cer­tain, that the mat­ing habits of C. novem­no­tata are sim­i­lar to those of C. septem­punc­tata. (Omkar and Sri­vas­tava, 2002; Sri­vas­tava and Omkar, 2004)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

There is lit­tle avail­able sci­en­tific lit­er­a­ture that de­scribes the gen­eral mat­ing be­hav­ior of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata. It is known that C. novem­no­tata reaches sex­ual ma­tu­rity 2 to 4 days after it be­comes an adult. Adults breed con­tin­u­ously dur­ing a sev­eral week pe­riod in the sum­mer that oc­curs be­fore over­win­ter­ing. (Losey, et al., 2012)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Adults breed continuously, living for several weeks.

• Breeding season

  Adults breed for several weeks in the summer.

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  22 to 25 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  22 to 25 days

Lit­er­a­ture is not avail­able that de­scribes the parental in­vest­ment of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, but typ­i­cally Coc­cinel­l­i­dae pro­vide only nu­tri­ents in the egg and no other parental in­vest­ment. (Gor­don, 1985)

• Parental Investment
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able on this topic for C. novem­no­tata, though it is known that it takes ap­prox­i­mately 20 days for C. novem­no­tata to de­velop from an egg to an adult. Adults then live for sev­eral weeks dur­ing the sum­mer, with the final gen­er­a­tion over­win­ter­ing. (Losey, et al., 2012)

Be­hav­ior

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata is a preda­tor of many species of aphids. It is a mo­bile in­sect that ac­tively hunts its prey. Coc­cinella novem­no­tata crawls or flies. It is mainly ac­tive dur­ing the day. There is lit­tle known about the so­cial be­hav­ior of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, most likely be­cause it is so scarcely found in North Amer­ica today. (Gor­don, 1985)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• hibernation

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

There is no avail­able in­for­ma­tion that de­scribes the com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, but it is likely sim­i­lar to other Coc­cinel­l­i­dae that rely on mainly vi­sual and chem­i­cal in­puts to lo­cate prey and mates. (Omkar and Sri­vas­tava, 2002; Sri­vas­tava and Omkar, 2004)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• chemical

Food Habits

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata is an in­sec­ti­vore coc­cinel­lid and thrives pri­mar­ily on a diet of aphids. They prey on a large va­ri­ety of aphids, in­clud­ing pea aphids, green peach aphids, and cheery-oat aphids. They will also eat spi­der mites, al­falfa wee­vils, the nymphs of leafhop­pers, and lep­i­dopteran eggs. (Hes­ler, et al., 2012; Losey, et al., 2012; Wheeler and Hoe­beke, 1995)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Like most Coc­cinel­l­i­dae, C. novem­no­tata is sub­ject to in­ter­species pre­da­tion and can­ni­bal­ism. Coc­cinella trans­ver­sogut­tata is known to prey on all life stages of C. novem­no­tata. In lab reared pop­u­la­tions, it has been ob­served that ac­tive stages of C. novem­no­tata will can­ni­bal­ize eggs and pupae, while large lar­vae will prey on smaller lar­vae. As a coc­cinel­lid, it is likely that C. novem­no­tata can re­flex bleed when threat­ened by a preda­tor, ex­cret­ing a toxin from its joints. The red color of these bee­tles func­tions as apose­matic warn­ing col­oration. (Gor­don, 1985; Hes­ler, et al., 2012; Losey, et al., 2012)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic

• Known Predators

  • Coccinella transversoguttata

Ecosys­tem Roles

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata acts as a preda­tor to many species of aphids, as well as spi­der mites, al­falfa wee­vils, leafhop­per nymphs, and lep­i­dopteran eggs. Aphids are the pri­mary prey of both lar­vae and adults of C. novem­no­tata. Com­pe­ti­tion over aphid prey and other food is sus­pected to have led to the di­min­ished pop­u­la­tion of C. novem­no­tata in North Amer­ica today. Ev­i­dence sug­gests that C. novem­no­tata is com­pet­ing with the in­tro­duced species, Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata, for aphids. The body size of C. novem­no­tata is par­tic­u­larly sus­cep­ti­ble to prey avail­abil­ity, and the mean body size has de­creased sig­nif­i­cantly in the past few years, in­di­cat­ing that C. novem­no­tata is being out-com­peted for prey. Other fac­tors that have been pro­posed as rea­sons for the de­cline of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata are cli­mate change as well as a change in agri­cul­tural land use. Other in­va­sive species, such as Har­mo­nia axyridis have not been at­trib­uted with the de­cline of this species. Coc­cinella novem­no­tata is also con­sid­ered to be a nat­ural enemy of Os­t­rina nu­bi­lalis, the Eu­ro­pean corn borer. The bra­conid wasp Peril­i­tus coc­cinel­lae is known to be a par­a­site of C. novem­no­tata adults. (Losey, et al., 2012; Wheeler and Hoe­beke, 1995)

Coc­cinella novem­no­tata eats many species of aphids, as well as spi­der mites, al­falfa wee­vils, leafhop­per nymphs, and but­ter­fly and moths eggs. The pop­u­la­tion of C. novem­no­tata has de­creased re­cently in North Amer­ica. This is thought to be caused by com­pe­ti­tion for food (aphids) be­tween C. novem­no­tata and other species, such as Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata. Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata is an in­va­sive species, and is likely push­ing C. novem­no­tata out of its habi­tat. The body size of C. novem­no­tata is ef­fected by the amount of food avail­able. In the past few years, the av­er­age body size of C. novem­no­tata has de­creased, which shows that in­di­vid­u­als of C. novem­no­tata are not get­ting enough food. The pop­u­la­tion of C. novem­no­tata may also have de­creased be­cause of cli­mate change, as well as changes in farm land (their food, aphids, are usu­ally very com­mon on crops on farm­land). Coc­cinella novem­no­tata is con­sid­ered to be a nat­ural enemy of Os­t­rina nu­bi­lalis, the Eu­ro­pean corn borer. The wasp Peril­i­tus coc­cinel­lae is known to be a par­a­site of C. novem­no­tata adults. (Losey, et al., 2012; Wheeler and Hoe­beke, 1995)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

In 1914 in Con­necti­cut and 1930 in Min­nesota, Coc­cinella novem­no­tata was ranked as one of the coc­cinel­lids with the great­est eco­nomic im­por­tance, as it could con­trol aphid pop­u­la­tions on crops. How­ever, since that time the de­cline of the species has re­duced its im­por­tance. (Brit­ton, 1914; Stehr, 1930)

• Positive Impacts
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse af­fects of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

This species cur­rently has no con­ser­va­tion sta­tus, but due to the mas­sive de­cline in pop­u­la­tion size across the United States, C. novem­no­tata is a likely can­di­date for fu­ture con­ser­va­tion ef­forts. (Har­mon, et al., 2007)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

In 2000, Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity started The Lost La­dy­bug Pro­ject, which uses im­ages of la­dy­bugs taken by cit­i­zens to iden­tify coc­cinel­lids from across the coun­try. This pro­ject has been ef­fec­tive in pro­vid­ing in­for­ma­tion about the lo­ca­tion of coc­cinel­lids, and has helped es­tab­lish the lim­ited pres­ence of C. novem­no­tata in the west­ern states. ("The Lost La­dy­bug Pro­ject", 2013; Losey, et al., 2012)

Con­trib­u­tors

Deeana Ijaz (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Bi­o­log­i­cal Sta­tion, An­gela Miner (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff, Brian Scholtens (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Bi­o­log­i­cal Sta­tion.

Ref­er­ences

2013. "The Lost La­dy­bug Pro­ject" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 27, 2013 at http://​www.​lostladybug.​org/​.

Brit­ton, W. 1914. Some com­mon lady bee­tles of Con­necti­cut. Con­necti­cut Agri­cul­tural Ex­per­i­ment Sta­tion Bul­letin, 181: 1-24.

Gagne, W., J. Mar­tin. 1968. The in­sect ecol­ogy of red pine plan­ta­tions in Cen­tral On­tario V. The Coc­cinel­l­i­dae (Coleoptera). Cana­dian En­to­mol­o­gist, 100: 835-846.

Gor­don, R. 1985. The Coc­cinel­l­i­dae (Coleoptera) of Amer­ica north of Mex­ico. Jour­nal of the New York En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 93: 1-912.

Har­mon, J., E. Stephens, J. Losey. 2007. The de­cline of na­tive coc­cinel­lids (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) in the United States and Canada. Jour­nal of In­sect Con­ser­va­tion, 11: 85-94.

Hes­ler, L., M. Catan­gui, J. Losey, J. Hel­big, A. Mes­man. 2009. Re­cent Records of Adalia bipunc­tata (L.), Coc­cinella trans­ver­sogut­tata richard­soni Brown, and Coc­cinella novem­no­tata Herbst (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) from South Dakota and Ne­braska. The Coleopter­ists Bul­letin, 64/4: 475-484.

Hes­ler, L., G. Mc­Nickle, M. Catan­gui, J. Losey, E. Beck­endorf, L. Stell­wag, D. Brandt, P. Bartlett. 2012. Method for Con­tin­u­ously Rear­ing Coc­cinella Lady Bee­tles (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae). The Open En­to­mol­ogy Jour­nal, 6: 42-48.

Hudon, M. 1959. First Record of Peril­i­tus coc­cinel­lae (Schrank) (Hy­menoptera: Bra­conidae) as a Par­a­site of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata Hbst. and Coleomegilla mac­u­lata lengi Timb. (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) in Canada. The Cana­dian En­to­mol­o­gist, 91/1: 63-64.

Losey, J., J. Perl­man, E. Hoe­beke. 2007. Cit­i­zen sci­en­tist re­dis­cov­ers rare nine-spot­ted lady bee­tle, Coc­cinella novem­no­tata, in east­ern North Amer­ica. Jour­nal of In­sect Con­ser­va­tion, 11/4: 415-417.

Losey, J., J. Perl­man, J. Kopco, S. Ram­sey, L. Hes­ler, E. Evans, L. Allee, R. Smyth. 2012. Po­ten­tial causes and con­se­quences of de­creased body size in field pop­u­la­tions of Coc­cinella novem­no­tata. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol, 61: 98-103.

Omkar, , S. Sri­vas­tava. 2002. The re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­iour of an aphi­dophagous la­dy­bee­tle, Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae). Eu­ro­pean Jour­nal of En­to­mol­ogy, 99: 465-470.

Sri­vas­tava, S., Omkar. 2004. Age-spe­cific mat­ing and re­pro­duc­tive senes­cence in the seven-spot­ted la­dy­bird, Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata. Jour­nal of Ap­plied En­to­mol­ogy, 128: 452-458.

Stehr, W. 1930. The Coc­cinel­l­i­dae (la­dy­bird bee­tles) of Min­nesota. Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota Agri­cul­tural Ex­per­i­ment Sta­tion Tech­ni­cal Bul­letin, 75: 1-54.

Wheeler, A., E. Hoe­beke. 1995. Coc­cinella novem­no­tata in North­east­ern North Amer­ica: his­tor­i­cal oc­cur­rence and cur­rent sta­tus (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae). Pro­ceed­ing of the En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Wash­ing­ton, 97: 701-716.