Family: Coccinellidae
Subfamily: Coccinellinae
Length: 7-9 mm
Anatis labiculata has the pronotum is pale with one large black spot in the center; this black spot has two white spots intruding into it from the base of the pronotum.
The elytra are tan or gray to reddish brown. Each elytron has seven spots: one near the shoulder, a row of three near the middle (of which the one along the suture is the largest), and another row of three to the rear. Near the scutellum is the beetle's fifteenth spot, which typically straddles the suture.
This species is widespread in West Virginia.
While the recent establishment of two exotic ladybird species have been blamed for the decline in numbers of native ladybirds, there may a small amount of good news on this score. It is true that M.W. Brown’s research (2003) into ladybirds in West Virginia apple orchards has shown that when the introduced Coccinella septempunctata became established in West Virginia, the native ladybirds all but disappeared from apple orchards. By a decade later, however, C. septempunctata had been replaced as dominant species by another exotic, Harmonia axyridis. The small bit of good news is that native species rebounded a bit after H. axyridis replaced C. septempunctata as West Virginia’s dominant orchard species. Apparently native species can compete better against H. axyridis than against C. septempunctata. Among the species Brown cites as recovering are Anatis labiculata and Coleomegilla maculata lengi.
