Maternal Care in Labidomera Suturella Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Chrysomelinae) from Costa Rica

In subsocial insects one or both parents provide postovipositional parental care (Michener 1969). Parental care is the most primitive form of sociality in insects and has evolved independently in diverse orders (references in Wilson 1971, Eickwort 1981, Hinton 1981, Tallamy and Wood 1986). In Coleoptera, it has been observed in only 11 families (Hinton 1981). All four species of Chrysomelidae that have been reported to exhibit subsocial behavior belong to the subfamily Cassidinae (Windsor 1987). I here report the first record of subsociality in Labidomera suturella Chevrolat, a member of the subfamily Chrysomelinae.