34 THE FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST 
known, and only those which have proven especially injurious, 
such as the striped cucumber beetle and the Colorado potato 
beetle, have been studied in detail from egg to adult. There is 
therefore a most fertile field for pioneer work by young entomolo- 
gists along this line. 
All the species are diurnal in habit and move slowly over the 
surface of plants, to which they adhere by means of the dense 
brushes of hairs upon the under side of the tarsi. The eggs are 
usually yellowish and elongated and are generally laid upon the 
leaves or stems of the plants upon which the larvae feed. The 
latter are of varying form, but for the most part are fleshy con- 
vex or chunky hump-backed “slugs” or grubs, a familiar example 
being that of the Colorado potato beetle. Many of them live on the 
leaves of the plants, where they feed often in company with the 
mature insects. Those that live exposed to the light differ from 
the great majority of coleopterous larvae in being more or less 
highly colored. Some of them are flattened and curiously armed 
with spines, while others are partially covered with their own 
excrement. A few are leaf-miners or stem borers, and these are 
long and slender and without the conspicuous markings of those 
which feed in the open. The larvae of one large group are case- 
bearers; others, including an entire subfamily (Humolpinae) are 
root-feeders. When ready to transform, many of the leaf-eating 
larvae fasten themselves by the tail or last abdominal segment to 
a leaf and enter the chysalis stage, while others go into the ground 
when about to change to a pupa. The case-bearers pupate within 
the sealed-up larval case. 
The main object of the present paper is to list in natural order 
the species of Chrysomelidae which in the past have been recorded 
from Florida, and to show somewhat accurately their distribu- 
tion in the State. Many of the older Coleopterists, including both 
Leconte and Horn, were content to put “Fla.” or “Florida” after 
their descriptions, forgetting that the State is approximately 400 
miles long, 360 miles wide across its northern border, and con- 
tains an area of nearly 60,000 square miles. Representatives of 
three distinct faunas, the Austroriparian, Subtropical and Tropi- 
cal, live within its bounds, and the time has come when more defi- 
nite and accurate distributional notes than those furnished by 
the mere name of the State are in demand. 
Another object is to furnish some knowledge of the principal 
food plants of each species. But in compiling this data from 
printed records or from my field accession notes (now more than 
