Disappearance of summer collection records for Menochilus sexmaculatus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) during climate warming

ABSTRACT

Long-term changes in the collection season of Menochilus sexmaculatus (Fabricius) were analysed based on 265 specimens collected from the Kansai district, central Japan, during 1949–2004. Results show that collection records in the summer months, July and August, decreased during this period, and that there were no summer records from 2000 to 2004. Concurrently, the annual mean and summer temperatures tended to increase and summer humidity decreased during this period in the Kansai district. Thus, the activity of M. sexmaculatus would be limited in summer because of the recent climate warming.

KEYWORDS:

• Annual mean temperature
• ladybird beetle
• seasonal activity
• specimen

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Andrew Polaszek (Natural History Museum, London) and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful suggestions. We would like to express our special thanks to Dr S. Nomura (National Museum of Nature and Science), Dr Y. Sawada (Museum of Nature and Human Activities Hyogo), Mr R. Matsumoto (Osaka Museum of Natural History), Dr Y. Okushima (Kurashiki Museum of Natural History), Prof. M. Sakai (Ehime University), Mr K. Kishimoto (Ehime University), Prof. H. Kojima (Tokyo University of Agriculture), Prof. K. Araya (Kyushu University) and Mr D. Yamaguchi (Kyushu University) for their assistance in studying the museum specimens, as well as Mr Y. Matsubara (Yokohama City) and Mr Y. Hirano (Odawara City) for allowing us to examine their private M. sexmaculatus collections.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.