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Title: An Annotated Checklist of the Lady Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of Iowa, USA

Author
item Hesler, Louis

Submitted to: Insecta Mundi
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/10/2009
Publication Date: 9/25/2009
Citation: Hesler, L.S. 2009. An Annotated Checklist of the Lady Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of Iowa, USA. Insecta Mundi 0091:1-10. Available: http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/0091Hesler.pdf.

Interpretive Summary: An annotated list of 80 kinds of lady beetles that occur in the state of Iowa, U.S.A., is presented based on literature searches and a review of over 3500 specimens from institutional and private collections. The list includes six new state records, as well as county records for the non-native species known commonly as the multicolored Asian lady beetle. Collection records are discussed for several species that have Iowa records that are disjunct from their larger geographic distributions in North America. We also discuss collection records and the need for additional collecting of coccinellids in Iowa, especially for lady beetle species that were once common and widespread but have declined drastically over much of North America, including Iowa.

Technical Abstract: An annotated list of 80 species of lady beetles (Coccinellidae: Coleoptera) that occur in the state of Iowa, U.S.A., is presented based on literature searches and a review of over 3500 specimens from institutional and private collections. The list includes new state records for Scymnus tenebrosus Mulsant, Diomus debilis (LeConte), Hyperaspis deludens Gordon, Hyperaspis lateralis Mulsant, Epilachna borealis (F.), and Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata (L.), as well as county records for the non-native species, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas). Collection records are discussed for Nephaspis oculatus (Blatchley), Hyperaspidius militaris (LeConte), Coccinella californica Mannerheim, and S. vigintiquatuorpunctata, which have Iowa records that are disjunct from their larger geographic distributions in North America. We also discuss collection records and the need for additional collecting of coccinellids in Iowa, especially Adalia bipunctata (Schneider), Coccinella transversoguttata richardsoni Brown, and Coccinella novemnotata Herbst, which were once common and widespread but have declined drastically over much of North America, including Iowa.