Adalia tetraspilota (Hope)

(Figs 15–17)

Coccinella tetraspilota Hope, 1831: 31 (Lectotype female, BMNH; Type locality: Nepal).

Adalia tetraspilota: Crotch 1874: 101; Korschefsky 1932: 434; Poorani 2002a: 320.

Adalia (Adalia) tetraspilota: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 436.

Adalia hopii Mulsant, 1850: 57. Incorrect replacement name for A. tetraspilota Hope (Booth & Pope 1989: 356).

Diagnosis. Length: 4.38–4.90 mm; width: 3.18–3.65 mm. Form (Figs 15a–i, 16a, 17g) elongate oval, moderately convex. Head black with two oblique, creamy yellow spots, adjacent to inner margins of eyes; antennal canthus yellow. Pronotum black, lateral sides creamy yellow and anterior margin transparent. Elytra orange yellow to red, with two pairs of black spots arranged in a shallow arc just before middle, outer pair usually larger than inner pair. Elytral pattern highly variable (Fig. 15a–i), spots variously fused or reduced. Ventral side black or dark brown, except lateral margins and apical ventrites of abdomen lighter yellowish brown and elytral epipleura yellow. Abdominal postcoxal line complete. Male genitalia (Figs 15m –o, 16b–e), and spermatheca (Fig. 15p) as illustrated.

Immature stages. Life stages as illustrated (Fig. 17).

Distribution. India: North and northwestern regions (Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh); Pakistan; Nepal; Afghanistan; China.

Prey/associated habitat. Adelgidae: Adelges spp.; Aphididae: Aphis craccivora Koch, A. fabae Scopoli, A. pomi De Geer, Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach), Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus), Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann), Hyalopterus pruni (Geoffroy) (as H. arundinis auctt.), Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Kaltenbach), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), and Pemphigus sp.; Diaspididae: Comstockaspis perniciosa (Comstock); Pyralidae: Dioryctria abietella (Denis & Schifferm̧ller) in Pakistan (Irshad 2001).

A high-altitude species, commonly associated with Adelges sp. and other adelgids infesting conifers, and aphids on apple, plum, poplar, rose, cabbage, mustard, cauliflower, Salix sp. and Urtica dioica. Immature stages commonly associated with aphids on Prunus cornuta, Populus ciliata, Cirsium sp., and Viburnum cotinifolium (Nagarkatti & Ghani 1972). Collected on cotton (label data). Collected on fig, walnut, akk plant, mulberry, wheat and maize (Hayat et al. 2017).

Seasonal occurrence. Collected during late March–November (particularly active during April–July in northwestern region). Adults hibernate in winter. In Kashmir, adults were observed to emerge in May and started overwintering in October (Maqbool et al. 2020). It has three generations in a year in Pakistan (Irshad et al. 2001). Joshi et al. (2012) studied its predatory potential on green peach aphid.

Natural enemy. Oomyzus scaposus (Thomson) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae).

Notes. A commonly collected variant of A. tetraspilota has only two elytral spots and is usually misidentified as A. bipunctata. Rahman & Khan’s (1941) report of Adalia bipunctata (L.) from Punjab as a predator of E. lanigerum and B. helichrysi probably involved A. tetraspilota. Bielawski (1963b) illustrated the male genitalia of A. tetraspilota. Nagarkatti & Ghani (1972) studied its biology on adelgids and described the immature stages with illustrations. Sharma & Verma (1993) studied its seasonal occurrence and predatory potential.