Information about survival climate of Ladybird beetle predator useful for mass production Temperature regimes.

1. WELCOME

2. Topic- “Effect of climate change on predatory lady bird
beetle and their potential impact on bio-control”
Presented By - Ashutosh Singh Aman
M.Sc.(Ag.) Entomology
Department of Entomology

3. Presentation- Outline….
Introduction of lady bird beetle.
Types of lady bird beetle.
Brief biology of lady bird beetle.
Where to find ladybugs ?
Use of lady bird beetle in biological control.
Commercial availability of ladybugs.
 Potential impact of lady bird beetle on Bio-control.
Case studies
Conclusion
References

4. Introduction
As knowledge about insects increased, the name became extended to all its
relatives, members of the beetle family Coccinellidae.
Ladybird is a name that has been used in England for more than 600 years for the
European beetle Coccinella septempunctata.
In the USA, the name ladybird are popularly Americanized to ladybugs, although
these insects are beetles, not bugs.
Coccinellidae are the family of beetles belonging to the superfamily Cucujoidea,
which in turn belongs to the series Cucujiformia within the suborders Polyphaga
of the beetles.
The lady bird beetle is a natural predator which has great contribution in
biological control.
It has long oval and dome shaped and variously coloured body, hemispherical in
shape.

5. The abiotic parameters are known to have direct
impact on insect population dynamics and direct
and indirect impact on Coccinellids through
modulation of developmental rates, survival,
fecundity, parasitism and dispersal.
Seven-spotted ladybird beetles are predaceous
on various types of aphids (rose aphid, green
peach aphid, green bug aphid and green mustard
aphid), mealy bugs, sugarcane aleyrodid, citrus
psyllid, mites and sorghum stem borer, Chilo
partellus. The predator has high potential of
predation both in the immature as well as adult
stage (Shepard, 1998).

6. Types of Lady birdbeetle
1. Two spotted Ladybird beetle - Adalia bipunctata
2. Twice stabbed Ladybird beetle - Chilocurus stigma
3. seven spotted Ladybird beetle - Coccinella septempunctata
4. Pink spot Ladybird beetle - Coleomegilla muculata
5. Mealy bug destroyer Ladybird beetle - Cryptolaemus montrouzieri
6. Multicolored Asian Ladybird beetle - Harmonia axyridis
7. Convergent Ladybird beetle - Hippodamia convergens
8. Spider mid destroyer Ladybird beetle - Stetspphorus spp.

8. Taxonomic Position
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum-Arthropods
Class - Insecta
Order- Coleoptera
Sub Order- Polyphaga
Superfamily- Cucujoidea
Family- Coccinellidae

9. Biology
 The ladybird beetle belongs to the family coccinellidae of order coleoptera.
 The members of the family are exclusively predator on aphids, mealybugs,
scale-insects, whiteflies, thrips, leafhoppers, mites and other small soft bodied
insect pests.
 Average length and breadth of larvae are. 41 ± 0.16 and 0.42 ± 0.02 mm,
respectively. Average width of head capsule is 0.25 ± 0.02 mm. Mean length and
breadth of pupae are 3.88 ± 0.19 mm and 2.30 ± 0.45 mm, respectively.
 Number of eggs laid by an individual female of ladybird beetle ranged from 195
to maximum 839 eggs with a mean of 382 ± 163.17 eggs.
 A female's fecundity under 25 °C temperature is about 400 eggs. the range is
200-700 eggs, on average 9 eggs/day.

10. Cannibalism in ladybird beetle

11. Reproduction and Hibernation

12. Life Cycle
Eggs
Larvae
Pupa
Adult

13. Eggs
 Usually located near colonies of
insect they eat.
 May be mistaken for egg of some
pest beetle such as Colorado potato
beetle, Mexican bean beetle and squash
beetle.
 Tiny, bright yellow – orange, spindle
shaped eggs laid upright in cluster of
5-30.

14. Larvae
 Look completely different from adults,
being flattened and tapered.
 Alligator like body structure.
 Up to ¼ inch long.
 Usually dark coloured (Black) with
orange or yellow markings.
 Many species have short bristles on
some part of the body.
 Three prominent pairs of legs.
 Larva are very active, creeping about
quickly as they hunt for prey

15. Pupa
 The pupae is the size of an
adult ladybird however, it is
all wrapped up at this stage of
the metamorphosis.
 The wrapping protects the
pupae while it undergoes the
final stage of metamorphosis
into the adult stage.
 This last stage only takes a
few days.

16. Adult
 Vary in size but
average ¼ to 3/8 inch
long.
 Typically round or
oval and convex in
shape.
 Bright and varied
colours ranging from
black to pink yellow or
red with or without
spots on wings

17. Where to find ?
 Found on many plants through out the garden and
landscape.
 Found where abundant of its prey and alternative
foods are available, feeding on soft bodies insects
or flowering plants .
 Look especially on leaf undersides.
 Garden crops on which lady beetles are commonly
found includes potatoes, sweet corn, peas, cole
crops, tomatoes and asparagus.

18. Use of Ladybird beetle in Biological
Control
 Most species of ladybirds are considered beneficial because they are
predators of Homoptera or Acarina, many of which are considered to be
pests.
 One type of biological control is thus called manipulative biological control
(of which a subset is conservation biological control).
 A second type of biological control isaugmentative biological control.
 A third type of biological control is classical or inoculative biological
control.

20. CommercialAvailability
1. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri - Mealybug destroyer (mealybugs on citrus, ornamentals, and
vegetables, and in greenhouses and interior - scapes).
2. Delphastus catalinae - Whitefly predator (greenhouse, banded-winged, sweet potato, woolly,
azalea, hibiscus, cloudywinged, citrus and rhododendron whiteflies on ornamentals,
vegetables, fruit, and citrus, and in greenhouses and interior - scapes).
3. Rhyzobius lophanthae - (also called Lindorus lophanthae) hard and soft scales and mealybugs on
ornamentals.
4. Hippodamia convergens- Ladybeetle (aphids, scales and thrips, in citrus, ornamentals, fruits and
vegetables, and in greenhouses and interior - scapes). This species occurs in Florida but there still is
a potential problem - some suppliers do not rear the beetles but collect overwintering adults from the
mountains of eastern California - these overwintering adult beetles (a) may be heavily parasitized
and many may die, and (b) may be programmed at the end of the winter to end the hibernation by
flying west (which may do you no good if they all take to flight and leave your property).

21. What is climate change ?
 Global climate change is a change in the long-term weather patterns that
characterize the regions of the world. It is evident from increase in global
average temperature, changes in the rainfall pattern and extreme climatic events.
 Being poikilothermic in nature insects are greatly affected by changing
temperature. Insect will experience additional life cycles with rapid growth rate.
As a result of changes in the population dynamics including distribution and
migration the reliability on current insect pest ETL will be reduced. Increased
insect pests outbreak will affect agricultural production.

22. How climate change show impact on biology
Other insects
 Life cycle of Aphis gossypii Glover ranges from 20-
22 days at 10-25 °C, but at 30 °C. it will take only 6-
9 days to complete the life cycle. In the cricket,
Gryllus texensis, 6 days of elevated temperatures
resulted in increased egg laying, faster egg
development and greater mass gain.
 Global climate change is projected to increase
temperature of the upper soil (0–5 cm) by 1.6– 3.4
°C, which is likely to have several effects on soil
insects such as Sitona spp, root weevils that are
important in lentil in West Asia. Higher temperatures
could speed up egg development, resulting in more
than one generation per year of the pest (Scott et al.,
2010).
Lady bird beetle
 Coccinella spp. an important lady bird beetle in the Sub-
Himalayan region of north –east India are found very active on
different insect pest of brinjal through out the year and its
population are recorded higher (4.87 coccinella/plant) during
March – April declined gradually.
 Coccinella incidence showed significant positive correlation
with maximum temperature where as with minimum and mean
temperature and rainfall correlation are negative but non
significant.
 Coccinella lady bird beetle population found higher (3-5/plant)
during 3rd and 4th week of july in active vegetative growth of
the crop.
 Adult and larval Adalia bipunctata, Coccinella septempunctata
and Harmonia axyridis would consume more aphid biomass per
body weight at rising temperature and would gain more body
weight at rising temperature.

24. Effect on predatory potential
 Lower foliar nitrogen content due to
CO2 causes an increase in food con-
sumption by the herbivores up to 40%
(Sharma et al., 2010).
 For instance, cotton is attacked by
aphids, Aphis gossypii, which are in turn
attacked by the ladybird beetle. Under
elevated CO2, cotton aphid survival
significantly increased but ladybird
larval development took significantly
longer time (Gao et al., 2009).
 The coccinellid predator, Leis axyridis
Pallas (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), of
an aphid herbivore, Aphis gossypii
Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae),
consumed more prey under conditions
of higher CO2 (Chen et al., 2005). Chen
et al. (2007).

25. Effect on inter-specific population interaction
 First, insects generally have a minimum
temperature required for development, and
this development threshold can differ
between bio-control agents and their hosts.
 When the threshold is lower in the host than
in the enemy, then pest suppression should
increase with warming (GTR declines).
 If the thermal development threshold is
higher in the host than in the enemy, then
warming may reduce pest suppression
(GTR increases).
 While the GTR has been shown to be a
strong predictor of prey suppression by
predators (Kindlmann and Dixon, 1999),
the theory has also been applied to
parasitoid-host systems (Mills, 2006)

26. Effect on parasitism
 The life of a developing parasitoid
depends on suppressing or fooling the
host’s immune system. Studies suggest
that higher temperatures increase the
probability that a host will kill its
parasitoid. Parasitism of the caterpillar
Spodoptera littoralis by the parasitoid
Microplitis rufiventris is less at 27°C
(80.6°F) than at 20°C (68°F) (Thomas
and Blanford 2003).
 Natural enemies of the spruce budworm,
Choristoneura fumiferana, are less
effective at higher temperatures
(Harrington et al. 2001).

27. Effect on coloration
 Insect coloration is the phenomenon of adoption to maintain the heat. Basically
darker colors are employed to absorb the heat and paler colors to avoid or reduce
the heating.
 Scientists have noticed that warming climate is changing ladybugs of the coast
of Netherlands from black to red. Red reflects more energy hence ladybugs stay
cool.
 The difference between red and black in ladybugs is only one protein, so as far
as genetic adaptations concerns, it’s an easy switch.

28. How Climate change effect our abilities to
manage pest ?
 Climate change may also indirectly affect insect herbivores; for example,
excessive heat or drought create stress on trees and lower their defence,
making them less resistant to insect attacks (Ayres, 1993). Casteel et al.
(2009)
 reported that global warming could cause another deleterious effect in the
form of deactivation of some genes responsible for the production of
volatile substances that are used by plants to attract the natural enemies of
the herbivorous insects. Vuorinen et al., (2004)
 reported that, in cabbage elevated CO2 level decreased the emission of
Jasmonic acid regulated terpene volatiles that reduced the searching
efficiency of the parasitoid, Cotesia plutellae.

29. Combined effects of temperature and CO2 on
natural enemy
 increased temperature allow moths
(leaf miner) to develop a lot more
quickly, but increased CO2 causes the
nutritional qualities in the leaves to
change, which results in smaller adult
moths and lower rate of survival in
the adults.
 In other words, when considering
climate change, we must also
consider that some factors may
balance each other out.

30. Effects of the winter temperature regime
on survival of lady bird beetle
 The warm winter regime increased the survival rate
and body mass loss and reduced post-winter
starvation resistance compared to those of the
ladybirds in the cold winter regime.
 The winter survival of the laboratory-reared beetles
are much lower than that of the field-collected
beetles. The laboratory-reared beetles also lost a
larger proportion of their body mass and had reduced
post-winter starvation resistance.
 Winter survival are similar between the females and
males, but compared to the males, the females lost a
smaller proportion of their body mass and had better
post-winter starvation resistance.

32. Potential impact of ladybird beetle on bio-
control
 Results revealed that aphids were slightly more preferred (53.8%) as
compared to mealy bugs (46.2%) when both were exposed together to adult
of Coccinella septempunctata in free choice test.
 In no choice test, when aphids and mealy bugs were fed individually to
Coccinella septempuctata, the predation of mealy bugs are 80 per cent after
24 hours; however it increased to 84.7 per cent after 96 hours. The overall
mealy bugs consumption varied from 24.0 ± 0.77 to 25.40 ± 0.98 per day.
 The mean number of aphids consumed the predator varied from 26.00 ±
0.81 to 28.00 ± 0.71 per day and the percent predation are 88.7 per cent
after 24 hours and it increased to 93.3 per cent after 96 hours.

33.  Larval development of C. sexmaculata are long when fed on M. persicae (12.18
days) and shorter on D. noxia (10.64 days). The male’s lifespan are longer on M.
persicae (26.70 days) and shorter on L. erysimi (23.67 days). Fecundity are maximum
when the beetle are fed D. noxia (316.8 eggs/female) and minimum on M. persicae
(199.1 eggs/female).
Female beetle devour more aphid as compare to male, the 4th instar grub prefer more
aphid than any other larval instar.
Feeding efficiency of lady bird beetle revealed that individual grub required 610.25
aphids for completion of larval development.

34. Case Study - 1
Global climate change is a change in the long-term weather patterns that characterize
the regions of the world. It is evident from increase in global average temperature,
changes in the rainfall pattern and extreme climatic events. The abiotic parameters are
known to have direct impact on insect population dynamics and direct and indirect
impact on biocontrol agents through modulation of developmental rates, survival,
fecundity, parasitism and dispersal. Climate change will also reduce the effectiveness of
host plant resistance; transgenic plants used for pest management. Hence, there is a need
to generate information on the likely effects of climate change on natural enemies to
develop robust technologies that will be effective in future pest management strategies.

35. Results revealed that aphids were slightly more preferred (53.8%) as compared
to mealy bugs (46.2%) when both were exposed together to adult of Coccinella
septumpunctata in free choice test. In no choice test, when aphids and mealy
bugs were fed individually to Coccinella septumpuctata, the predation of mealy
bugs are 80 per cent after 24 hours; however it increased to 84.7 pecent after 96
hours. The overall mealy bugs consumption varied from 24.0 ± 0.77 to 25.40 ±
0.98 per day. The mean number of aphids consumed the predator varied from
26.00 ± 0.81 to 28.00 ± 0.71 per day and the per cent predation are 88.7 per
cent after 24 hours and it increased to 93.3 per cent after 96 hours.
Case study - 2

36. Conclusion
 Effect of climate change is more in temperate areas; it can affect the range expansion,
host and enemy synchrony and inter-specific competition. Among the various abiotic
factors, temperature is an important force to drive the natural enemy population. It can
cause the direct effects like survival, growth and development, voltinism, longevity,
parasitism and dispersal of natural enemies.
 Adverse effects of climate change on the activity and effectiveness of natural enemies
will be a major concern in future pest management programs.
 The CO2 cause indirect effect through host nutrient alteration and it has both positive
and negative effects.
 Therefore, there is a need to have a concerted look at the likely effects of climate
change on crop protection and long-term conservation bio control agents, which need
greater attention to understand and address these issues through more research.

37. References
Schwarz, T. and Frank, T. 2019. Aphid feeding by lady beetles: higher consumption
at higher temperature. BioControl, 64:323–332.
Selvaraj, S., Ganeshamoorthi, P. and Pandiaraj, T. 2013. Potential impacts of recent
climate change on biological control agents in agro-ecosystem. International
Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation. Vol. 5(12), pp. 845-852.
Kambrekar, D. N., Guledgudda, S. S., Katti, A. and Kumar, M. 2015. Impact of
climate change on insect pests and their natural enemies. Karnataka J. Agric.
Sci. Special. Issue, 28(5): (814-816).
Sable, M.G. and Rana, D.K. 2016. Impact of global warming on insect behavior.
Agricultural Reviews, 37(1) : 81-84.

38.  Knapp, M. and Rericha, M. 2020. Effects of the winter temperature regime on survival,
body mass loss and post-winter starvation resistance in laboratory-reared and field-
collected ladybirds. Scientific Reports,10:49-70.
 Shera, P.S., Dhawan, A.K. and Aneja, A. 2010. Potential impact of ladybird beetle,
Coccinella septumpunctata L. on cotton mealy bug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley and
aphid, Aphis gossypii Glove. Journal of entomological Research, 34(2) :139-142.
 Brakefield, P.M. and de Jong, P.W. 2011. A steep cline in ladybird melanism has decayed
over 25 years: a genetic response to climate change? Heredity,107, 574–578.
 Ghosh, K.S. and Chakraborty, G. 2010, Hyderabad, 12th & 13th November 2010.
December 2010. Climate Change Impact In The Population Of Lady Bird Beetle
Vegetable Crops And Harmful Effect Of Insecticides. Asthana, S. and Margaret, E.
Hydrabad, St. Ann’s College for Women: pp 60-64.