Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens can be found in most of the Nearc­tic and Neotrop­i­cal re­gions. It is a com­mon species through­out the United States, rang­ing from New Jer­sey to Texas to Cal­i­for­nia. It also com­mon in Canada and South Amer­ica. (Casey, 1899; Jaques, 1951; The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens, the con­ver­gent lady bee­tle, is found in a di­verse array of habi­tats in­clud­ing forests, grass­lands, agri­cul­tural fields, and sub­ur­ban gar­dens. Con­ver­gent lady bee­tles are found on crops in gar­dens and farms where there are plenty of aphids and other prey to eat. Typ­i­cal crops on which they live are wheat, sorghum, and al­falfa. Dur­ing the win­ter, H. con­ver­gens can be found under logs, ground-cov­er­ing veg­e­ta­tion, and even in build­ings. (The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005)

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is semi-hemi­spher­i­cally shaped and has ely­tra that are yel­low/red or tan­nish red with 12 black spots. The bee­tle does not have the typ­i­cal oval shape of most lady bee­tles and the ely­tra are not as cur­va­ceous. Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens has three sep­a­rate spots on the pos­te­rior of the ely­tra, while their legs and un­der­side are all black. These bee­tles have short legs with 3 seg­mented tarsi and short an­ten­nae as well. The pro­tho­rax is black with a white bor­der and white lines that are di­rected in­ward to­wards one an­other and the ab­domen; they are con­verg­ing, thus giv­ing this bee­tle its name. The pro­tho­rax does not align per­fectly with the front edge of the ely­tra.

Eggs are typ­i­cally 1 to 1.5 mm, elon­gated, and pointed at one end. Lar­vae look like al­li­ga­tors and are dis­tinct be­cause of the or­ange spots that they have on their pro­tho­rax. Pupae are or­ange and black and have a hemi­spher­i­cal shape. (Casey, 1899; Jaques, 1951; "Lady Bee­tles", 2012)

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

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range length

  4 to 5 mm

  0.16 to 0.20 in

• Range wingspan

  2.7 to 4.4 mm

  0.11 to 0.17 in

De­vel­op­ment

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens goes through the same life cycle as other Coc­cinel­lids, pro­gress­ing from the egg stage to the lar­val stage, then to pu­pa­tion and fi­nally adult­hood. Eggs hatch after ap­prox­i­mately a week, and then lar­vae de­velop through four in­stars over the course of two to three weeks. Con­ver­gent lady bee­tles are unique in that dur­ing food scarcity, they are able to alter their de­vel­op­ment in re­sponse. In­di­vid­u­als wait until they are be­tween 5 to 35 mg (op­ti­mal weight being greater than 15 mg) to go through the process of pu­pa­tion. It is com­mon for a final in­star larva to at­tach it­self to the sur­face of leaves right be­fore molt­ing and form­ing a pupa. H. con­ver­gens gen­er­ally has two gen­er­a­tions a year, one in the spring and the other in the fall. Dur­ing times of food scarcity or ex­treme tem­per­a­tures, adults of H. con­ver­gens can enter di­a­pause. The first gen­er­a­tion of the year will often di­a­pause at some point dur­ing the sum­mer, while the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion will di­a­pause over win­ter. (Phoofolo, et al., 2009; Shel­ton, 2009; Var­gas, et al., 2012; "Lady Bee­tles", 2012)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis
• diapause

Re­pro­duc­tion

No in­for­ma­tion was found about the mat­ing sys­tems of these lady bee­tles specif­i­cally, but it is likely that they mate mul­ti­ple times with mul­ti­ple mates, as do other Coc­cinel­l­i­dae.

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is a bi­vol­tine species, with two gen­er­a­tions a year, one in the spring and the other in the fall. Fe­males of H. con­ver­gens are able to enter into re­pro­duc­tive di­a­pause dur­ing dry sea­sons or times of ex­treme tem­per­a­ture, when food re­sources are not plen­ti­ful enough for it to re­pro­duce suc­cess­fully. Egg lay­ing gen­er­ally co­in­cides with aphid pop­u­la­tion cy­cles, with the most egg lay­ing tak­ing place when aphid pop­u­la­tions are at their peak. Fe­males have been shown to in­crease ovipo­si­tion in the pres­ence of aphids. A fe­male can pro­duce 200 to 500 eggs in her life­time. (Hodek and Cerngier, 2000; Michaud and Qureshi, 2006; Sluss, 1968; Var­gas, et al., 2012)

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

• Breeding interval

  H. convergens breeds continuously after reaching sexual maturity, while aphid numbers are high.

• Breeding season

  One generation mates in early spring, while the other generation mates in early fall.

• Range eggs per season

  200 to 500

No in­for­ma­tion was found about parental in­vest­ment in this species, but it is likely that, as with other coc­cinel­lids, it pro­vides only nu­tri­ents in the egg as parental in­vest­ment.

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

Lifes­pan/Longevity

It takes about 4 to 7 weeks for H. con­ver­gens to de­velop from egg to an adult. Adults live for an ex­tended pe­riod after that, with the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion over­win­ter­ing. (Shel­ton, 2009; "Lady Bee­tles", 2012)

Be­hav­ior

Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able con­cern­ing unique be­hav­ioral traits. Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is mainly a soli­tary species, ex­cept when over­win­ter­ing, when hun­dreds of H. con­ver­gens may col­lect. It is mostly ac­tive dur­ing the day. Adults can fly from plant to plant to find prey, while lar­vae move from plant to plant by walk­ing across over­lap­ping leaves, often fol­low­ing leaf veins. (Pu­ran­dare and Ten­hum­berg, 2012; Sluss, 1968; The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• hibernation
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

To lo­cate prey, H. con­ver­gens uses pri­mar­ily vi­sual, ol­fac­tory, and chem­i­cal cues. Closely re­lated species of coc­cinel­lids have been found to re­spond to aphid pheromones and other chem­i­cal cues. Hon­ey­dew se­creted by aphid prey is also thought to be a sig­nif­i­cant chem­i­cal cue to coc­cinel­lids preda­tors, and has even been shown to in­crease ovipo­si­tion in H. con­ver­gens and other Coc­cinel­l­i­dae. Lar­vae are also thought to re­spond to aphid chem­i­cal cues while search­ing for prey, though it is likely that prey search by lar­vae is more ran­dom than adults. Lar­vae rely heav­ily on tac­tile cues, and have been shown to fol­low along leaf veins until they ei­ther de­tect ol­fac­tion-based cues or just bump into aphid prey. (Darby, et al., 2003; Jamal and Brown, 2001)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is preda­cious. It feeds on other in­sects and some­times on small arthro­pods. Con­ver­gent lady bee­tles typ­i­cally eat aphids, scale in­sects, and plant mites. Cot­ton, pea, melon, cab­bage, potato, green peach, and corn leaf aphids are all prey that con­ver­gent lady bee­tles have been re­ported to eat. This makes this species a use­ful tool in con­trol­ling aphid pop­u­la­tions on farms. Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens also eat the eggs and lar­vae of other in­sects, such as stinkbugs, as­para­gus bee­tles, and potato psyl­lids. Al­though both im­ma­ture bee­tles and adults eat mostly aphids, dur­ing the fall when they are get­ting ready for hi­ber­na­tion, adults will feed on pollen to gain extra fat for hi­ber­na­tion. When there is food scarcity, it is not un­com­mon for coc­cinel­lids to be­come can­ni­bal­is­tic and eat their own lar­vae and eggs. (Saito and Bjorn­son, 2006; Shel­ton, 2009; The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005)

These bee­tles have a large ap­petite and may con­sume be­tween 40 to 75 aphids per day. It has been shown that tem­per­a­tures around 23 de­grees Cel­sius cause these lady bee­tles to eat the most aphids. This in­di­cates that the species is bet­ter at con­trol­ling aphid pop­u­la­tions at this higher tem­per­a­ture. (Kat­sarou, et al., 2005; Shel­ton, 2009)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

• Plant Foods
• pollen

Pre­da­tion

Gen­er­al­ist in­sect preda­tors such as Geo­coris bul­la­tus and Nabis al­ter­na­tus are known to eat eggs of H. con­ver­gens. Birds are often preda­tors of H. con­ver­gens as well. In de­fense, the red and black col­oration of the ely­tra of con­ver­gent lady bee­tles serves as warn­ing col­oration. Avian preda­tors have been shown to rec­og­nize lady bee­tles with red color and black spots and eat them less fre­quently than lady bee­tles with no spots or dif­fer­ent col­oration. Ad­di­tion­ally, like most coc­cinel­lids, H. con­ver­gens can likely bleed tox­ins from the joints in its ex­oskele­ton. (Dolen­ska, et al., 2009; Tak­izawa and Sny­der, 2012)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic

• Known Predators

  • Birds
  • Nabis alternatus
  • Geocoris bullatus

Ecosys­tem Roles

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is a sig­nif­i­cant preda­tor of many agri­cul­tural pests, par­tic­u­larly aphids. They also feed on a va­ri­ety of other in­sects. Birds and gen­er­al­ist preda­tory in­sects such as Geo­coris bul­la­tus and Nabis al­ter­na­tus feed on H. con­ver­gens. Pathogens such as Mi­crosporidia use con­ver­gent lady bee­tles as hosts, which causes de­layed lar­val de­vel­op­ment. These pathogens are often hor­i­zon­tally trans­mit­ted among this species, as H. con­ver­gens will can­ni­bal­ize its eggs and lar­vae in times of low prey den­sity. The bra­conid wasp Peril­i­tus coc­cinel­lae is known to use H. con­ver­gens as a host. Par­a­sitoid hy­menopter­ans such as Dinocam­pus coc­cinel­lae have been found to also use con­ver­gent lady bee­tles as hosts, with fe­males being in­fected at a higher rate than males. Par­a­sites travel with their host lady bee­tles that are shipped for agri­cul­tural con­trol pur­poses, which has likely caused an in­crease of par­a­sites in the re­gions to which they are shipped. (Bjorn­son, 2008; Saito and Bjorn­son, 2006; Sluss, 1968)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is of great eco­nomic ben­e­fit to hu­mans. Con­ver­gent lady bee­tles are reared and sold as pest con­trol agents for farms and gar­dens, since they are the nat­ural preda­tors of agri­cul­tural pests, par­tic­u­larly many species of aphids and scale in­sects. (Bjorn­son, 2008; Casey, 1899; Michaud and Qureshi, 2006; Saito and Bjorn­son, 2006; Shel­ton, 2009)

• Positive Impacts
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Al­though Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens is help­ful and often trans­ported for agri­cul­tural pur­poses, this species can act as a trans­mit­ter for dis­eases and par­a­sites. The trade and trans­porta­tion of this lady bee­tle has in­creased the risk of in­tro­duc­ing new pathogens into the United States. (Saito and Bjorn­son, 2006)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens has no spe­cial con­ser­va­tion sta­tus. (Bjorn­son, 2008; Casey, 1899; Phoofolo, et al., 2009; The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005; "Lady Bee­tles", 2012)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

No ad­di­tional com­ments.

Con­trib­u­tors

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

Ref­er­ences

Wash­ing­ton State Fruit Com­mis­sion. 2012. "Lady Bee­tles" (On-line). Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­sity Tree Fruit Re­search & Ex­ten­sion Cen­ter Or­chard Pest Man­age­ment On­line. Ac­cessed Au­gust 09, 2012 at http://​jenny.​tfrec.​wsu.​edu/​opm/​displayspecies.​php?​pn=687.

Bjorn­son, S. 2008. Nat­ural en­e­mies of the con­ver­gent lady bee­tle, Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens Guérin-Méneville: Their in­ad­ver­tent im­por­ta­tion and po­ten­tial sig­nif­i­cance for aug­men­ta­tive bi­o­log­i­cal con­trol. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol, 44 (3): 305–311.

Casey, T. 1899. A re­vi­sion of Amer­i­can Coc­cinel­l­i­dae. Jour­nal of The New York En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 7: 71-168.

Darby, A., B. Ray­mond, A. Dou­glas. 2003. The ol­fac­tory re­sponse of coc­cinel­lids to aphids on plants. En­to­molo­gia Ex­per­i­men­talis et Ap­pli­cata, 95(1): 113-117.

Dolen­ska, M., O. Nedved, P. Vesely, M. Tesarova, R. Fuchs. 2009. What con­sti­tutes op­ti­cal warn­ing sig­nals of la­dy­birds (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) to­wards bird preda­tors: colour, pat­tern or gen­eral look?. Bi­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal of The Lin­naen So­ci­ety, 98 (1): 234-242.

EOL, 2012. "Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens: Con­ver­gent lady bee­tle" (On-line). En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Life. Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 29, 2012 at http://​eol.​org/​pages/​1174377/​overview.

Hodek, I., P. Cerngier. 2000. Sex­ual ac­tiv­ity in Coc­cinel­l­i­dae (Coleoptera): a re­view. Eu­ro­pean Jour­nal of En­to­mol­ogy, 97: 449-456.

Jamal, E., G. Brown. 2001. Ori­en­ta­tion of Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens (Coleoptera : Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) lar­vae to volatile chem­i­cals as­so­ci­ated with Myzus nico­tianae (Ho­moptera : Aphi­di­dae). En­vi­ron­men­tal En­to­mol­ogy, 30(6): 1012-1016.

Jaques, H. 1951. How to know the bee­tles. Dubuque: WM. C. Brown com­pany Pub­lish­ers.

Kat­sarou, I., J. Mar­gar­i­topou­los, J. Tsit­sipis, D. Perdikis, K. Zarpas. 2005. Ef­fect of tem­per­a­ture on de­vel­op­ment, growth and feed­ing of Coc­cinella septem­punc­tata and Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens reared on the to­bacco aphid, Myzus per­si­cae nico­tianae. Bio­con­trol, 50 (4): 565-588.

Michaud, J., J. Qureshi. 2006. Re­pro­duc­tive di­a­pause in Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) and its life his­tory con­se­quences. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol, 39 (2): 193-200.

Phoofolo, M., N. El­liot, K. Giles. 2009. Analy­sis of growth and de­vel­op­ment in the final in­star of three species of preda­tory Coc­cinel­l­i­dae under vary­ing prey avail­abil­ity. En­to­molo­gia Ex­per­i­men­talis et Ap­pli­cata, 131 (3): 264-277.

Pu­ran­dare, S., B. Ten­hum­berg. 2012. In­flu­ence of aphid hon­ey­dew on the for­ag­ing be­hav­iour of Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens lar­vae. Eco­log­i­cal En­to­mol­ogy, 37(3): 184-192.

Saito, T., S. Bjorn­son. 2006. Hor­i­zon­tal trans­mis­sion of a mi­crosporid­ium from the con­ver­gent lady bee­tle, Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens Guérin-Méneville (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae), to three coc­cinel­lid species of Nova Sco­tia. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol, 39 (3): 427-433.

Shel­ton, A. 2009. "Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens (Coleoptera: Coc­cinel­l­i­dae) con­ver­gent Lady Bee­tle" (On-line). Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity, Col­lege of Agri­cul­ture and Life Sci­ences, En­to­mol­ogy De­part­ment, Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol. Ac­cessed Au­gust 10, 2012 at http://​www.​biocontrol.​entomology.​cornell.​edu/​predators/​Hippodamia.​html.

Sluss, R. 1968. Be­hav­ioral and anatom­i­cal re­sponses of the con­ver­gent lady bee­tle to par­a­sitism by Peril­i­tus coc­cinel­lae (Schrank) (Hy­menoptera: Bra­conidae). Jour­nal of In­ver­te­brate Pathol­ogy, 10(1): 9-27.

Tak­izawa, T., W. Sny­der. 2012. Alien vs. preda­tor: Could bi­otic re­sis­tance by na­tive gen­er­al­ist preda­tors slow lady bee­tle in­va­sions?. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­trol, 63(2): 79-86.

The Michi­gan En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 2005. "Lady Bee­tles En­to­mol­ogy Note No. 6" (On-line). En­to­mol­ogy Notes Pub­lished as a Ser­vice to the Michi­gan En­to­mol­ogy So­ci­ety. Ac­cessed Au­gust 09, 2012 at http://​insects.​ummz.​lsa.​umich.​edu/​MES/​notes/​entnotes6.​html.

Var­gas, G., J. Michaud, J. Ne­chols. 2012. Cryp­tic ma­ter­nal ef­fects in Hip­po­damia con­ver­gens vary with ma­ter­nal age and body size. En­to­molo­gia Ex­per­i­men­talis et Ap­pli­cata, 146(2): 302-311.