The sperm of three coccinellid species belonging to the subfamilies Chilocorinae, Coccinellinae and Epilachninae were studied under light and transmission electron microscopy. The basic sperm structure of these ladybirds is common to that of the other previously studied species, especially the acrosome in front of the basal body and not the nucleus, with this latter running parallel with the flagellar components. In the Chilocorinae Platynaspis luteorubra (Platynaspidini) the sperm are of the type 1, as in Scymnini and Coccinellini, since they exhibited a cylindrical basal body with 9 + 0 and then 9 + 2, microtubules continuing further in an initial flagellar portion with the only axoneme devoid of accessory structures. The sperm exhibits a thin nucleus and mitochondrial derivatives. Such uniformity of sperm ultrastructure could be indicative of the occurrence of a close relationship between Platynaspidini and Scymnini as also proposed in the previous studies. Conversely, they differ markedly from the sperm of type 3 observed in the Chilocorini Exochomus quadripustulatus. In the Coccinellini Propylea quatuordecimpunctata the sperm are also of the type 1, but they can be easily differentiated from those of the other Coccinellinae studied so far, because of their very short acrosome without the posterior extension, the relatively thicker mitochondrial derivatives and the cylindrical nucleus. Epilachna clandestina sperm resemble those of E. quadripustulatus but differ from them, because they exhibit an elliptical nucleus which is anteriorly very thin, and the asymmetrical mitochondrial derivatives in the anterior extremity, with the greater one starting at the same level of the basal body, rather than at the nucleus level, as it occurs in E. quadripustulatus. Because of the differences observed in the sperm ultrastructure we propose a new sperm type (Type 4) for E. clandestina. This study on ladybird spermatozoon ultrastructure clearly indicates that the current classifications of coccinellids do not reflect the natural history of this well-known insect family.

中文翻译：

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三种瓢虫（鞘翅目，瓢虫科）的精子超微结构。

在光镜和透射电镜下研究了三种属于球虫科，球藻科和上鞭毛科的球孢属的精子。这些瓢虫的基本精子结构与其他先前研究的物种共有，特别是在基体前的顶体而不是细胞核，后者与鞭毛成分平行。在Chilocorinae lutyrurubra（Platynaspidini）中，精子属于1型，如在Symymini和Coccinellini中一样，因为它们表现出具有9 + 0，然后9 + 2的圆柱形基体，微管在最初的鞭毛部分继续延伸，唯一的轴突缺乏附件结构。精子显示出薄的核和线粒体衍生物。精子超微结构的这种均匀性可能表明，如先前的研究中所提出的，鸭嘴兽和斯密尼人之间存在密切的关系。相反，它们与Chilocorini Exochomus quadripustulatus中观察到的3型精子明显不同。在Coccinellini Propylea quatuordecimpunctata中，精子也属于1型，但是它们可以很容易地与迄今为止研究的其他Coccinellinae的精子区分开，因为它们的顶体非常短，没有向后延伸，相对较厚的线粒体衍生物和圆柱状核。Epilachna clandestina的精子类似于E. quadripustulatus的精子，但与它们不同，因为它们表现出一个椭圆形的核，其前部非常薄，并且前肢的线粒体衍生物不对称，其中较大的一个开始于基体的相同水平，而不是像四棱线虫中的细胞核那样开始。由于在精子超微结构中观察到的差异，我们提出了一种针对隐性大肠杆菌的新精子类型（类型4）。这项对瓢虫精子超微结构的研究清楚地表明，目前的球虫属分类并不能反映该著名昆虫家族的自然历史。