Nephus o. ornatus(LeConte)

Nephus o. ornatus (LeConte)

Nephus o. ornatus (LeConte) is a small lady beetle (Coccinellidae) in the subfamily Scymninae. It has previously been recorded in New Brunswick from the Tabusintac River, Northumberland County (June 22, 1939, W.J. Brown) and Kouchibouquac National Park, Kent County (May 24, 1977, S.J. Miller).

In Nova Scotia there are records from a sphagnum bog in Monastery, Guysborough County (August 8, 1984, B. Wright) and from North Mt., Victoria County on Cape Breton Island (June 11, 1984, A. Smetana). The specimen pictured below was collected in Wilmot, Carleton County, New Brunswick, August 5, 2004 by R.P. Webster in sphagnum moss in a calcareous fen.

Little has been reported about the bionomics of this species but it appears to prefer boggy environments. The adults and larvae, as is the case with most species of Coccinellidae, are predators of aphids (Aphididae), adelgids (Adelgidae), psyllids (Psyllidae), mealy bugs and scales (Coccoidea), and other soft-bodied invertebrates found on plants.

Gordon (1976) provides the definitive taxonomic treatment of this group (the Scymnini) while Majka and McCorquodale (in press) provide an overall discussion of the Coccinellidae in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone.

dorsal habitus

ventral habitus

lateral habitus

References

Gordon, R.D. 1976. The Scymnini (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the United States and Canada: key to genera and revision of Scymnus, Nephus and Diomus. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 28. 369 pp.

Gordon, R.D. 1985. The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) of America north of Mexico. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 93(1):1-912.

Majka, C.G. and McCorquodale, D.B. in press. The Coccinellidae: Lady Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) of the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. In: D.F. McAlpine and I. M. Smith [ed.] Assessment of Species Diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. National Research Council of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario.

Vandenberg. N.J. 2002. Coccinellidae Latreille 1807. pp. 371-389. In: Arnett, R.H., Jr., Thomas, M.C., Skelley, P.E., and Frank, J.H. (eds.) American Beetles, Volume 2: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA.