AbigailParker

Beautiful! This is a male, with a completely white 'face'; females have a black spot in the center of the head.

The double-branched spines of the larva are still visible on the "skin" at the rear of the pupa - in North America, the only lady beetle larva with double-branches spines is H. axyridis.

This is a beneficial creature, it doesn't harm humans, pets, or property - it just looks alarming. It eats small arthropods (insects and mites) that actually DO harm humans, pets, and property! I like having them in my house; in Asia they are considered lucky.

Also called the Egg Plant Ladybird or the Hadda Ladybird. The scientific name was formerly Epilachna vigintioctopunctata.

Good luck finding the beetles! And there's always next year to find more of them - I've waited years to get good pictures of insects that I missed out on. I'll definitely get a cheesesteak in your honor too ;)

It probably is Olla v-nigrum, then. Here is a good photo of an Ashy-gray larva, yours looks just like it! http://bugguide.net/node/view/412037/bgi...

Thanks! The underside of Chilocorus lady beetles is an important feature for identification. I may not be able to ID it even with that photo, but it will narrow down the options and hopefully I'll be able to tell you the species!

They are usually white or pale-colored (light gray, light brown, light yellow) with brown or black spots; one species that I know of, Psyllobora vigintimaculata, has a color variant with both orange and black spots. They are so pretty, and beneficial to the garden since they eat fungus from plant leaves!

It is in subfamily Coccinellinae, tribe Coccinellini. I am not an expert on Central American larvae, so I'm not sure of the genus or species.

The adult is definitely Olla v-nigrum; the larva is probably the same species, but I can't tell for sure.