Little Brown Mealybug Destroyer

Nephus sordidus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Coccinellidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Little Brown Mealybug Destroyer
Photo: Don Loarie, CC BY

The Little Brown Mealybug Destroyer occurs in North America. In California's San Joaquin Valley it helps control mealybugs on grapes, pistachios and almonds.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It is found in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Idaho, Colorado.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Little Brown Mealybug Destroyer photo 2
Photo: Don Loarie, CC BY
Little Brown Mealybug Destroyer photo 3
Photo: Jared Shorma, CC BY

Same family (Coccinellidae)

Asian Lady BeetleAsian Lady BeetleHarmonia axyridisCan biteSeven-spotted Lady BeetleSeven-spotted Lady BeetleCoccinella septempunctataConvergent Lady BeetleConvergent Lady BeetleHippodamia convergensCan biteFourteen-spotted Lady BeetleFourteen-spotted Lady BeetlePropylea quatuordecimpunctataVariegated Lady BeetleVariegated Lady BeetleHippodamia variegataSpotless Lady BeetleSpotless Lady BeetleCycloneda sanguinea

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephus_%28Scymnobius%29_sordidus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-29 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-29.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.