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FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST 
Official Organ of The Florida Entomological Society, Gainesville, 
Florida. 
IPROBESSOR: J bys WIATSON Ges eer Editor 
DR AWILMONCNEWELie in eee ee ee Associate Hditor 
TOR MEW WDE RGHR 6.2500 soe Oe Series eevee sean eee Business Manager 
Issued once every three months. Free to all members of the 
Society. 
Subscription price to non-members is $1.00 per year in ad- 
vance; 25 cents per copy. 
A FOOD PLANT OF LANGURIA DISCOIDEA Lec. 
The beetles of the family Hrotylidae are known as ‘“‘The Pleas- 
ing Fungus Beetles.” They are mostly slender, in shape re- 
sembling the click beetles but usually taper conspicuously toward 
the posterior end and, instead of the sober uniform colors of 
those beetles, these are most prettily and tastefully colored in 
striking patterns of red and black, a red thorax and black elatra 
or the reverse. Striking, but trim and elegant, never with gaudy 
or harlequin color patterns, they are indeed “pleasing” to the 
eye, quite ‘“‘chic’”’ in fact. It would seem that they should be an 
ornament to any sago palm; but at least one nurseryman cannot 
see it that way. 
The family is well represented in the tropics and numbers 
1800 species but only 50 of them are found in North America. 
Most of these beetles live in fleshy fungi into which they bore 
but those of the genus Languria feed on plants and are often 
found visiting flowers. Tho one species, L. mozardi, is known 
as the Clover-Stem Borer, from its habit of boring into the stems 
of clover to which it is sometimes very destructive, their habits, 
especially those of the larvae, are not well known, generally 
speaking. This seems to be true of L. discoidea Lec., so the 
following observation by Mr. John Beach, the well-known nur- 
seryman of West Palm Beach, is a real contribution to our 
knowledge of the species: 
“It lives on the sago palms and eats the young shoots. It also 
nips the old leaves to some extent, and when the plant is touched 
drops into the bud. I have known them for twenty years on the 
sagos and have seen them ruin a fine lot of sagos at the Craigin 
place but it took them four years to do it. After covering all 
the sagos they attacked and killed the buds of Washingtonias, 
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