The only member of the genus and sometimes referred to as the alfalfa ladybird, Subcoccinella has a very wide distribution; Palaearctic and east through Asia but not, apparently, in China, and south through North Africa. Introduced to North America during the twentieth century and now widespread, in many places common. In the U.K. it is generally common or even abundant throughout England and Wales north to Cumbria including the islands with the exception of Man. Further north there are a few southwest coastal or estuarine records from Scotland. Adults overwinter in grass tussocks, leaf litter among grass, gorse bushes or under dock leaves or debris. They are active during mild winter spells and are among the first coccinellids to appear. Sweeping grass will generally produce them in numbers from late February or early March. Adults appear commonly on flowers, especially apiaceae but also noted on thistles, nettles, mugwort, salad burnet, knapweed, spurrey and tansy. A wide range of food plants have been listed; seventy species in the U.S.A., mostly Caryophyllaceae and Fabaceae, and it is a pest, sometimes a serious one, of alfalfa, Medicago sativa Linnaeus. In the U.K. it has been recorder feeding on red campion and false oat grass. Preferred habitat is grassland in just about any situation, where the adults may be swept in large numbers from late spring until the autumn. In our local area they are abundant everywhere most years, and we have also swept them from salt marsh vegetation (Keyhaven, Hants.) Eggs are laid among low vegetation during May and the larval stage lasts about six weeks. New generation adults appear from the end of June, they may enter reproductive diapauses towards the end of July but they remain active into October or November. This diapause is initiated by photoperiod and temperature. Mortality during overwintering is high and overwintered adults finally die off in May or June. Our cool, temperate climate limits the population size and so the species does not become a serious pest. Specimens examined in the U.K. have been wingless; in a European study 40% of individuals were wingless but as winged specimens carry the genes for wing atrophy, it is thought that the wingless state will increase.