Chilocorus bipustulatus, the heather ladybird, is a beetle species belonging to the family Coccinellidae, subfamily Chilocorinae.
These beetles are found in most of the Palearctic realm,[1] (Europe, North Africa, Asia north of the Himalayan foothills, and northern and central Arabian Peninsula),[2] and has been introduced to tropical Africa, Hawaii, and North America.[3]
The elytra of this small beetle are a shiny brown with two reddish-orange spots on each elytron (hence the Latin word Latin: bipustulatus, 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 3- long and can be encountered from May through October.
In Europe it occurs in fruit gardens, pine forests, and stone quarries.[4] 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 moss[5]
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.[6] [7]