Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle © Tony Palmer
Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle © bradtoms (iNaturalist)
Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle © Tony Palmer
The Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle is native to North America. It is most active from May to August. This species is usually black with light yellow spots.
Status
Native
No status ranking exists in the United States or Canada.
Last Seen
2021
Fun Fact
Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetles’ species name (decempustulata) means “ten” and “blister, bubble”.
Identification
The Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle is 1.8 to 2.8 mm in length, and is slightly elongate in shape.
- 5 light yellow to yellow spots on each elytron, with sparse punctures, each one separated by a distance that is at minimum the diameter of the punctures themselves. Sparse nature of the punctures are a good distinguishing characteristic from B. felina.
- Head: Light yellow or light yellow and black.
- Legs: Light orange or brown in color.
- Male: Black pronotum, with a yellow margin on the front, which connects two yellow patches located at the frontal corners (anterolateral angles) of the pronotum. The yellow margin extends into the black patch.
- Female: Black pronotum, yellow anterolateral patches, which are sometimes connected by an extremely narrow yellow margin that does not extend into the black pronotum patch.
- Often confused with other Brachiacantha species, particularly B. felina.
Habitat
Mostly found in forests, sometimes found during herbaceous sweep netting.
General Range
Midwestern to eastern United States, north from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to North Dakota, south to Florida and Louisiana.
Food
Likely arboreal aphids.
Life History
One study found the Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetle to occur from mid-May to mid-September, with the highest occurrence frequency recorded in July. This study mostly found Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetles using malaise trapping and yellow sticky traps, with very few specimens collected by sweep netting or visual search. Little is known about this species.
More Information
You can find more information about Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetles using the following links:
Vermont Distribution
Visit the iNaturalist Observation Map and Occurrence Records to find out where Ten-spotted Spurleg Lady Beetles have been seen in Vermont.
