Chilocorus bipustulatus, the heather ladybird, is a beetle species belonging to the family Coccinellidae.
These beetles are found in most of the Palearctic realm,Fauna Europaea (Europe, North Africa, Asia north of the Himalayan foothills, and northern and central Arabian Peninsula), N. B. Nikitsky and А. S. Ukrainsky, 2016 The Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of Moscow Province ISSN 0013-8738, Entomological Review, 2016, Vol. 96, No. 6, pp. 710–735 ISSN 0013-8738 and has been introduced to tropical Africa, Hawaii, and North America.ITIS
The elytra of this small beetle are a shiny brown with two reddish-orange spots on each elytron (hence the Latin word , meaning two-blistered). Sometime three spots run in an horizontal line and join into two larger stains.
The mature larva is about long. Wintering occurs as an adult. The adults grow up to long and can be encountered from May through October.
In Europe it occurs in fruit gardens, pine forests, and stone quarries.Koch, K., Die Käfer Mitteleuropas, Ökologie. Vol. 2 (Goecke und Evers Verlag, Krefeld, 1989). In Poland it was found on grasses, low vegetation and bushes, on heath lands, under flakes of bark on pines and fruit trees, occasionally in leaf litter and in mossBurakowski, B., Mroczkowski, M., and Stefańska, J., Katalog Fauny Polski. Szęść XXIII, Chrząszcze– Coleoptera. Tom 13. Cucujoidea, część
Heather ladybirds feed on aphids and scale insects (mainly belonging to the family Coccidae and Diaspididae) and is often introduced as a biological control in cases of infestation.Commercially used biological control agents
References
External links Invertebrate Ireland On Line Bugguide Larva of C. bipustulatus