Doryphora reticulata Fabricius, 1787

Windsor, Donald M., Dury, Guillaume J., Frieiro-Costa, Fernando A., Susanne Lanckowsky, & Pasteels, Jacques M., 2013, Subsocial Neotropical Doryphorini (Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae): new observations on behavior, host plants and systematics 1, ZooKeys 332, pp. 71-93 : 76

Doryphora reticulata Fabricius, 1787

Remarks.

Recent observations by F.F. reveal clearly that maternal care is expressed by Doryphora (Megistomela) reticulata (Fabr.) in the cerrado of south-central Brazil (Fig. 5) (see also photo in Chaboo 2011). Photographs of this species in the Boqueirão Biological Reserve, Minas Gerais of Brazil (elevation 1200 m; 21°20.76'S, 44°59.49'W) in 2005 clearly show behaviors strikingly similar to that observed in Doryphora paykulli in Panama. Females oviposit on the underside of partially-expanded, apical leaves of Prestonia tomentosa ( Apocynaceae ) (Fig. 1e, f). Larvae emerge and are tightly straddle-guarded by the female (Fig. 1g), but unlike Doryphora paykulli and Doryphora sp. near punctatissima, no larval cannibalism of eggs was observed. Larvae guarded by the mother continued to feed on leaves and strip cortex, eventually descending to the ground tended by the mother prior to pupating nearby in the soil (Fig. 1h). Indeed, of the many Chrysomelinae species associated with Solanaceae and other plant families studied at Serra do Japi and other sites near Campinas in Central Brazil (Table 1), Doryphora reticulata is the only species in which mothers are known to actively guard their larval brood. Inferences regarding subsocial habits in Platyphora conviva ( Reid et al. 2009) are incorrect according to J. Vasconcellos-Neto (personal communication, 2013). Further, ongoing studies in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia by one of the authors (D.W.) have found no evidence of maternal care occurring in any of 16 species of Doryphorini .