page_title: Colorado potato beetle
section_title: Predators
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado potato beetle / Behavior and ecology / Predators
caption_attribution_description: spotted lady beetle, Coleomegilla maculata (De Geer, 1775), feeding on eggs of Colorado potato beetle
context_page_description: The Colorado potato beetle, also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, or the potato bug, is a major pest of potato crops. It is about 10 mm long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra. Native to America, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards.
context_section_description: At least 13 insect genera, three spider families, one phalangid (Opiliones), and one mite have been recorded as either generalist or specialized predators of the varying stages of L. decemlineata. These include the ground beetle Lebia grandis, the coccinellid beetles Coleomegilla maculata and Hippodamia convergens, the shield bugs Perillus bioculatus and Podisus maculiventris,  various species of the lacewing genus Chrysopa, the wasp genus Polistes, and the damsel bug genus Nabis.
  The predatory ground beetle L. grandis is a predator of both the eggs and larvae of L. decemlineata, and its larvae are parasitoids of the pupae. An adult L. grandis may consume up to 23 eggs or 3.3 larvae in a single day.
  In a laboratory experiment, Podisus maculiventris was used as a predatory threat to female L. decemlineata specimens, resulting in the production of unviable trophic eggs alongside viable ones; this response to a predator ensured that additional food was available for newly hatched offspring to increase their survival rate. The same experiment also demonstrated the cannibalism of unhatched eggs by newly hatched L. decemlineata larvae as an antipredator response.
caption: Coleomegilla maculata preying upon Colorado beetle eggs
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