eTawau > Insects of Borneo > Beetles > Ladybirds > Coccinella transversalis

Species page · Coleoptera: Coccinellidae: Coccinellinae

The transverse ladybird, Coccinella transversalis

Record 1: one adult on a leaf stalk beside the path through the oil palms, Tawau River Triangle, Tawau, 5 October 2008, 16:02

The ladybird from above on a green leaf stalk: orange-red wing cases with a thin black line where they meet and black blotches on each side.
16:02:07, from above: the black line down the middle.
Side view of the ladybird walking along a hairy green leaf stalk, black blotches on its domed orange-red back.
16:02:20, walking up the leaf stalk.
Close side view: domed orange-red wing cases with black bands, black legs and underside, gripping the green stalk.
16:02:33, side view, black legs and underside.
The head end from above: a black head-shield (pronotum) with an orange-red patch at its front corner, and a black zigzag band on the wing case behind.
16:02:53, black head-shield with an orange front corner.
The ladybird climbing the stalk: two black zigzag bands running across the orange-red wing case.
16:03:02, the zigzag bands across the wing cases.
The ladybird climbing towards the cut tip of the leaf stalk, head-shield black with an orange front corner.
16:03:06, climbing towards the tip of the stalk.

Photos 1–2 cropped and reduced from the photographer's files, photos 3–6 reduced whole; nothing else changed. No flash.

Record 1 — Tawau River Triangle, 2008

DateSunday 5 October 2008
Time16:02–16:03, afternoon
PlaceBeside the walking path among the oil palms, inside the Tawau River Triangle, the abandoned oil palm plantation by the Tawau River opposite Pasar Semarak, Km 7 Jalan Kuhara, Tawau, Sabah
SubstrateA green leaf stalk
BehaviourWalked slowly upward to the tip of the long leaf stalk, then suddenly flew away and disappeared
NumberOne, adult
SizeNot measured
CameraCanon PowerShot A460, eight frames in one minute, no flash
AfterwardsPhotographed and left
ObserverWong Fook Yee, on one of his regular walks in the Triangle
iNaturalistobservation 407417434

Identification

Order Coleoptera · Family Coccinellidae (ladybirds) · Subfamily Coccinellinae · Genus Coccinella · Species Coccinella transversalis Fabricius, 1781, the transverse ladybird. Also listed as Coccinella repanda.
  • Wing cases orange-red, with a thin black line down the middle where they meet.
  • Black wavy (zigzag) bands and blotches running across each wing case.
  • Head-shield (pronotum) black, with an orange-red patch at each front corner, the same colour as the wing cases.
  • Legs and underside black.

The name was given by identifiers on iNaturalist. A common look-alike, the six-spotted zigzag ladybird (Cheilomenes sexmaculata), usually lacks the black line down the middle, and the pale parts of its head-shield are yellowish-white rather than orange-red. The transverse ladybird is about 5 mm long, and adults and larvae eat aphids and other soft-bodied insects (OzAnimals; Kuandu Nature Park).

Remarks

Ladybird larvae look nothing like the adults; a spiny ladybird larva from Ikutmaju Sawmill is on its own page, named only to family.

Related: Tawau River Triangle: all records · Ladybird larva, Ikutmaju, 2011 · Beetles · Two pairs of wings
Photographs © Wong Fook Yee. Place, date, time and behaviour are the photographer's own; name from iNaturalist; species notes from OzAnimals and Kuandu Nature Park. Species page written 11 October 2026.