Further ecological impacts of the seven-spotted lady beetle

I recently stumbled upon an article that caught my eye...

"The co-occurrence of an introduced biological control agent (Coleoptera: Coccinella septempunctata) and an endangered butterfly (Lepidoptera: Lycaeides melissa samuelis)"

In a post long ago, I talked about an internship I had during the summer of 2007 with the Detroit Zoo. I worked with their restoration program for the endangered karner blue butterfly (KBB) (Lycaeides melissa samuelis).

Karner blue butterfly

Now I am studying the effects of exotic lady beetles such as the seven spotted (Coccinella septempunctata) on native lady beetles. Though, I had not taken much time to think about other native insects that could be affected by the exotic beetles. In this paper the authors reported observing both species co-occurring spatially and temporally with the eggs and larvae of the KBB. They also observed an adult beetle feeding on a KBB larvae. This observation is not shocking to me since lady beetles are generalist predators, meaning they can feed on a wide variety of prey.

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Beetles/7-spotted_ladybird_3.jpg
Seven-spotted lady beetle

The conservation of endangered species is incredibly important since the loss of a single species has the potential to drastically impact the ecosystem. The KBB is also treated as an "umbrella species" because efforts made to preserve KBB populations, have benifited other native plants and animals that reside in the Oak Savannah habitat as well.

Oak savannah habitat in Southern Michigan

Citation:
Schellhorn, N. A., C. P. Lane, and D. M. Olson. 2005. The co-occurrence of an introduced biological control agent (Coleoptera: Coccinella septempunctata) and an endangered butterfly (Lepidoptera: Lycaeides melissa samuelis). Journal of Insect Conservation 9:41-47.