Morphological characteristics of ladybird beetles (coccinellidae: Coleoptera) of district Buner,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan

Ladybird beetle is important group of beetles because they are important universal predatory and occupies important place in biological control. however,the ladybird beetle fauna of pakistan is not extensively explored area wise. in this connection,the present study was conducted to explore the ladybird beetle fauna of district buner,khyber pakhtunkhwa,pakistan. the study area was divided into twelve different localities namely village (pirbaba,kingergali,daggar,gokand,barkalay,budal,shaheede sar,nawagai,nagrai,chinglai,totalai and malka). collection surveys were conducted in these areas at fifteen days interval in the active season during 2013-14. the identification of the collected specimens during the study revealed that there are thirteen species of ladybird beetle under eleven genera and three subfamilies (subfamily chilocorinae,subfamily coccinellini and subfamily epilachnini) were collected. these species are brumoidus suturalis,coccinella septempunctata,coccinella transversalis,menochilus sexmaculatus,propylea dissecta,coelophora bissellata,oenopia sauzeti,aiolocaria hexaspilota,psyllobora bisoctonotata,harmonia dimidiata,henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata,henosepilachna septima and afidentula manderstjernae. the numerical data of these species reveals that c. septempunctata,h. dimidiata,c. sexmaculatus and h. vigintioctopunctata are highly abundant and were collected from all localities,while the rest of the species are moderately abundant except a. hexaspilota which is only collected from single locality pirbaba. © copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.