South American Subsocial Beetles

Subsocial CassidinaeSome manuscripts take a long time to gestate, some go fast. A Short Communication is even faster to write when it comes on the tail of a bigger synthesis. After Chaboo et al. (2015), my colleagues were all on alert to look for more subsocial cassys (subsocial= adult caring for one brood).  Within a few months, colleagues in Colombia, Brazil, and French Guiana sent me images and data of species whose biology was unknown but were predicted to be subsocial. Today, we add another chapter in the book about subsocial cassidines.

See: Macedo MV, V Flinte, A Abejanella, & CS Chaboo. 2015. Three New Reports of Subsocial Tortoise Beetles from South America (Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 1–5 (2015); DOI: 10.1093/aesa/sav086.