Anatis ocellata, commonly known as the eyed ladybug, is a species of ladybug in the family Coccinellidae. It has black spots on a red background, though a brown background has been seen in Alberta, with each spot surrounded by a yellowish halo. In one color variation, a specimen found in Scotland was reported having the spots fused to form longitudinal lines. Sometimes can also be found variation where black spots are absent.
Distribution The species is found from continental Europe, in transcontinental Russia, in central Asia, in Mongolia, in northern China, in Western Canada and to the Korean Peninsula and also Turkey.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 online pdf
Biology The primary habitat is temperate coniferous forest including Central European mixed forests and Sarmatic mixed forests, Scandinavian montane birch forest. Most frequently on pines but also on Picea abies and other Picea species, Betula pendula and other Betula species, and Populus tremula. Adults are entomophagous, mainly feeding on aphids on coniferous trees Dyadechko, N.P., The Coccinellidae of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev, 1954) [in Russian].
The species feeds on aphids such as Eucallipterus tiliae, Tuberculatus annulatus, Euceraphis betulae, Cavariella konoi, Acyrthosiphon ignotum, A. pisum, and Macrosiphoniella artemisiae. They prefer pine aphids (family Adelgidae), and are attracted to the scent of pine. The defensive alkaloid compound 2-dehydrococcinelline has been isolated and identified from this species. The adults and larvae also feed on leaf hopper larvae on P. tremula.Savoiskaya, G.I., Coccinellid Larvae (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) of the Fauna of the USSR (Nauka, Leningrad Branch, Leningrad, 1983) (Keys to the Fauna of the USSR, Published by the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, No. 137) [in Russian].The adults overwinter in litter and among fallen leaves. The adults overwinter.
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