Coelophora biplagiata (Swartz) (Fig. 63) Coccinella biplagiata Swartz, in Scĥnherr, 1808: 196 (Type locality: China). Lemnia biplagiata: Mulsant 1850: 383: 1866: 252; Yu 2010: 72. Coelophora biplagiata: Crotch 1874: 149; Poorani 2002a: 327; Kovář 2007: 613. Diagnosis. Length: 5.50–6.50 mm; width: 4.40–5.50 mm. Form (Fig. 63a) broadly circular, convex. Body broadly oval, strongly convex, dorsum glabrous. Head light yellow. Pronotum black, lateral sides yellowish confluent along cephalic border. Elytra black with a broad reddish patch, irregular in outline, situated in the anterior half of elytra. Male genitalia (Fig. 63b–e) as illustrated. Distribution. India: Northeastern region (Manipur, Assam); Nepal; Myanmar; Thailand; China; The Philippines; Korea; Japan; Introduced in Far Eastern Russia. Prey/associated habitat. Known hosts include: Aphididae: Aphis craccivora Koch, Aphis gossypii Glover, Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner, Aphis (Toxoptera) aurantii Boyer de Fonscolombe; Diaspididae: Chrysomphalus aonidum (Linnaeus), Lepidosaphes beckii (Newman). Collected on sugarcane and in association with indeterminate aphids infesting pigeonpea, Vigna sp. and Argemone sp. Can develop well on Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), Aphis glycines Matsumura, Aphis fabae Scopoli, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), Macrosiphum rosae (Linnaeus), and A. craccivora in the laboratory and greenhouse conditions (Kuznetsov & Pang 2002). Feeds on aphids on Bidens pilosa, Thuja compacta and Prunus persicae in Nepal (Sajan et al. 2019). Introduced in Far Eastern Russia from China and found to be very effective in controlling aphids infesting melon, cucumber and peppers in greenhouses (Kuznetsov & Pang 2002). Seasonal occurrence. Collected during March, July–August, September–October (Assam, northeastern region). Note: Most of the Indian records of C. biplagiata are suspect and most probably refer to C. saucia, a similar looking, more widely distributed species. Sasaji (1971) and Yu (2010) provided a detailed description with illustrations. See Semyanov (2001) and Kuznetsov & Pang (2002) for biology, prey and use in pest management.

Published as part of POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, pp. 1-307 in Zootaxa 5332 (1) on pages 95-97, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5332.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8261502