Synonyms
Cleodora Mulsant, 1850: 160. TS: Cleodora mellyi Mulsant, 1850 (junior homonym).
Cleobora Mulsant, 1850: 1025 (replacement name).
Diagnosis
This peculiar ladybird can readily be distinguished from remaining Australian Coccinellini by its yellowish elytra with dark, transverse markings, strongly developed tibial spurs, prothoracic hypomeron without foveae and smooth, non carinate prosternal process.
Description
Length 5-8 mm. Body moderately large, elytra weakly convex; winged, glabrous. Elytral colour pattern, constant, uniformly orange with black markings. Head with anterior clypeal border straight between lateral projections. Antenna 11-segmented; slightly longer than head capsule with weak 3-segmented club. Terminal maxillary palpomere weakly securiform. Pronotal disc evenly convex transversely; lateral margins slightly concave within upturned external borders. Prothoracic hypomeron without fovea near anterior angles; prosternal process without distinct carinae. Anterior margin of mesoventrite deeply emarginate medially. Elytral margin with thickened margins; epipleuron not foveate. Tibial spurs formula 0-2-2. Abdominal postcoxal line not recurved and incomplete laterally without oblique additional line. Male terminalia. Parameres and phallobase symmetrical; penis guide symmetrical. Parameres articulated with phallobase. Penis stout, consisting of single sclerite; basal capsule distinct and T-shaped. Apodeme of male sternum 9 very narrow and rod-like. Female terminalia. Coxities club-handle like; styli terminal, well developed, with apical setae; infundibulum tube-like, enclosing the sperm duct; sperm duct simple, uniform in diameter. Spermatheca distinctly curved with cornu and basal ramus and nodulus; spermathecal accessory gland adjacent to sperm duct.
Distribution and Biology
This monotypic genus is endemic to Australia. The exact food preferences of C. mellyi are unknown, but various sources (cited by Pope 1989) indicate that psyllids are probably the primary prey of this species, the diet being supplemented by aphids and larval chrysomelids when available. Bashford (1999) recorded C. mellyi and Harmonia conformis (Boisd.) as effective predators of eggs of the chrysomelid leaf beetle Chrysophtharta bimaculata (Olivier), a major defoliator of young eucalypts in Tasmania.
Genus References
Bashford, R. 1999. Predation by ladybird beetles (Coccinellids) on immature stages of Eucalyptus leaf beetle Chrysophtharta bimaculata (Olivier). Tasforests, 11: 77-86.
Iablokoff-Khnzorian, S M. 1982. Les coccinelles. Coleopteres-Coccinellidae. Societe nouvelle des editions Boubee, Paris. 568 pp.
Mulsant, M E. 1850. Species des Coléoptères Trimcres Sécuripalpes. Annales des Sciencies Physiques et Naturelles, d'Agriculture et d'Industrie, publiées par la Société nationale d'Agriculture, etc., de Lyon, Deuxicme Série, 2: xv + 1-1104 (part 1 pp. 1-450; part 2 pp. 451-1104).
Pope, R. D. 1989. A revision of the Australian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Part 1. Subfamily Coccinellinae. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 2 (1988): 663-735.
Slipinski, A. 2007. Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) their biology and classification. ABRS, Canberra. 286 pp.
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