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Florida Entomologist 
veel eee of the Florida ees Society. 
WORUVIT-” WINTER NUMBER No. 3 
JANUARY, 1924 
THE CHRYSOMELIDAE OF FLORIDA 
By W. S. BLATCHLEY 
Dunedin, Florida 
To the student of entomology the leaf beetles or Chrysomelidae 
comprise one of the most interesting families of insects. On ac- 
count of their variation in form and color they have long been a 
favorite group of the systematic Coleopterists, while their leaf- 
and root-feeding habits have for many years attracted the atten- 
tion of economic entomologists. The family is one of the largest 
among the Coleoptera, about 18,000 species being known to scien- 
tists. Of these Leng, in his recent catalogue, recognizes 974 
from America north of Mexico. In the ‘Coleoptera of Indiana” 
265 were included from that State and 20 or more additional ones 
have since been taken. The present list of 268 species and 15 
varieties from Florida shows that the number known from each 
of these two states is very nearly the same. 
The Chrysomelidae may be characterized and separated from 
our other Coleoptera as follows: 
Size medium or small, rarely more than 13 mm. (one-half inch) in length; 
form variable, usually more or less oval and convex, never much flattened; 
color variable, often brilliant and shining; surface usually glabrous; an- 
tennae rarely more than two-thirds the length of body, filiform, the outer 
joints rarely subserrate or slightly thickened; front of head small, oblique or 
inflexed; base of antennae not at all surrounded by the eyes; thorax usually 
with distinct side margins; tarsi all 5-jointed, but the fourth joint very 
small and attached very closely to the base of the fifth, the tarsi therefore 
apparently only 4-jointed; sole usually densely pubescent. 
Of the life habits of the great majority of the Chrysomelidae 
but little or nothing is known, except that the adults occur mainly 
on the foliage of plants. The larvae of only about 100 species are 
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