IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN SSC Ladybird Specialist Group

Overview and description

Description:

Wants to implement a global conservation plan through, at least, one site managed as a ladybird preserve and/or multiple redistribution releases in each region, inform researchers and conservation ...

Dr John LOSEY

Chair

Lost Ladybug Project - Director

Prof Antonio SOARES

Red List Authority Coordinator

António Onofre Soares is a biologist, graduated in the University of Coimbra and he has a PhD in Biology with a specialization on Ecology. Presently is assistant professor at the Department of Biology, University of the Azores, and responsible for several disciplines at the under-graduate and graduate levels including Ecology, Applied Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology. Currently is director of the Master program on Biodiversity and Biotechnology. He coordinates and participates in several research projects and supervises research of Master and PhD student and Post-Doctoral fellows as well. His research focuses primarily on the ecological bases of biological control. He has worked extensively on ladybird beetles as model species (i) to determine the best conditions for mass rearing, (ii) to assess the vulnerability of these species to biotic interactions, and (iii) to study lethal and sub-lethal effects of pesticides. He is now exploring new ideas on life-history evolution and dynamics of colonization and invasion of ladybird beetles in an island context.

The IUCN SSC Ladybird Specialist Group's mission is to collaborate across regions and disciplines to identify (through the application of IUCN Red List categories and criteria ladybird species with high extinction risk, determine the factors leading to high extinction risk, develop strategies to manage risk and enhance the status of these species and implement conservation management for threatened ladybird species.

Specialist Group work

We aim to establish a key baseline of evaluated ladybird species across the world including a flagship species in each region. In addition, we will establish the primary factors leading to extinction allowing the development and initial implementation of conservation management strategies.