Chilocorus similis
Species of beetle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chilocorus similis is a species of red-spotted lady beetles belonging to the family Coccinellidae, subfamily Chilocorinae.
| Chilocorus similis | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Family: | Coccinellidae |
| Genus: | Chilocorus |
| Species: | C. similis |
| Binomial name | |
| Chilocorus similis (Rossi, 1790) | |
This beetle is an endemic Italian species, present in Italian mainland. It preys on scale insects living on Euonymus species. The elytra are brown-black, with two reddish round spots. It measures about 3–5 millimetres (1⁄8–3⁄16 in) long. This lady beetle was deliberately introduced to the United States by Marlatt in 1902 to control the San Jose Scale, an early example of biocontrol.[1]