The ladybug Chilocorus kuwanae, which was described in Japan, has been used for biological control of pests for 100 years. Chilocorus kuwanae was recently synonymized with Ch. renipustulatus described in Europe. The synonymy was based on the examination of few specimens. Our aim is to verify this synonymy. We studied all characters previously used to distinguish these taxa: eight metric and nine qualitative characters. Examination of 107 specimens from Japan and Sakhalin and 174 specimens from Europe showed that the ranges of variability in all characters in Asian and European specimens strongly overlap. There are no characters with interspecific hiatuses. Analysis with Amadon’s criteria showed that Asian and European specimens also do not represent different subspecies. Conclusions: (1) No differences between the specimens from Asia (Japan and Sakhalin) and Europe were found at specific or subspecific levels. Chilocorus kuwanae is a junior synonym of Ch. renipustulatus. (2) The releases of “Chilocorus kuwanae” in Europe and the Caucasus did not represent classical biological control since the same species was native to these regions. (3) A thorough taxonomical revision with the study of morphological variability should be conducted before the introduction of any species to new regions. (4) Taxonomical conclusions based on morphological studies should be confirmed by statistical methods.

中文翻译：

---

严格的形态学研究证实，害虫防治科罗氏沼虾的经典对象与Ch。renipustulatus（鞘翅目：球虫科）。

在日本描述的瓢虫Chilocorus kuwanae已用于生物防治害虫已有100年了。Chilocorus kuwanae最近被命名为Ch。呼吸器在欧洲描述。同义词是基于对少量标本的检查。我们的目的是验证这个同义词。我们研究了以前用来区分这些分类单元的所有字符：八个度量标准字符和九个定性字符。对来自日本和萨哈林岛的107个标本以及来自欧洲的174个标本进行的检查显示，亚洲和欧洲标本中所有字符的变异范围都强烈重叠。没有带有种间中断的字符。用Amadon的标准进行分析表明，亚洲和欧洲的标本也不代表不同的亚种。结论：（1）在特定或亚特定水平上，未发现亚洲（日本和萨哈林岛）与欧洲的标本之间存在差异。Chilocorus kuwanae是Ch。的初级同义词。呼吸器。（2）欧洲和高加索地区的“ Chilocorus kuwanae ”释放并不代表经典的生物防治，因为这些地区是同一物种。（3）在将任何物种引入新地区之前，应进行彻底的分类学修订，以研究形态变异性。（4）基于形态学研究的分类学结论应通过统计学方法予以确认。