Platyphora microspina ( Bechyne , 1954)

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 : 77-78

Platyphora microspina ( Bechyne, 1954)

Remarks.

Platyphora microspina was initially observed on Cerro Campana (Parque Nacional Altos de Campana), along a ridgeline approximately 50 m west and up-slope from the Podocarpus trail in July 1999 (elevation 900 m; 8°41.07'N, 79°55.82'W). Large numbers of adult and immature beetles were observed feeding on Markea megalandra (Dunal), a woody hemiepiphyte which grows within the canopy of forests at elevations of 1000-2000 m in Western and Central Panama ( Correa et al. 2004). Larvae and adults of Platyphora microspina (Fig. 2a) were largely associated with quick-growing sprouts coming from a portion of the plant damaged earlier by limb fall. A small number of Platyphora microspina including one female tending three small and partially-sclerotized larvae were moved to a terrarium in an air conditioned laboratory containing host plant cuttings to facilitate observations. Larvae remained physically in contact with one another, often beneath one or more legs of the mother during the first three days. However, as larvae grew in size and spent more time feeding, the mother moved to the side of the group for the remaining 10-12 days of development and feeding (Fig. 2b). Single larvae occasionally left the aggregation, apparently to find new leaves, and through alternative bouts of substrate tapping with the tip of the abdomen-approximately one to two taps per second for two to three minutes-isolated larvae appeared able to call or stimulate their siblings and mother to visit new feeding sites (Fig. 2c). The mother was also observed physically nudging inactive larvae. As the first cohort neared the end of its feeding period the mother deposited another cohort of 4 larvae, briefly leaving 7 larvae of two distinct cohorts and size classes together under the mothers care (Fig. 2d). One day later larvae in the first cohort fell to the base of the terrarium, became inert and later pupated. An additional two cohorts produced by the same mother, each containing 4 larvae, were subsequently observed in the lab. Larvipositions occurred over a span of 28 days, 10 days between cohort 2 and 3, 17 days between cohorts 3 and 4. The larval feeding period for the second cohort lasted 21 days. The non-feeding prepupal period lasted 8 days and the pupal period 7 days. Thus, the interval between larviposition and adult emergence takes approximately 5 weeks in this species. Observations were terminated after the fourth cohort, so reproduction possibly continues for an even longer period in this relatively non-seasonal, premontane forest. The species is dependent upon the continued presence of its hemiepiphytic host plant on Cerro Campana and similar small refuges along the cordillera passing through Panama. Approximately eight years after these observations were made a single adult specimen resembling Platyphora microspina was collected at the Cana field station near the Colombian border. One year later at the same site, a group of recently emerged adults of the same species were observed on a woody shrub in the family Solanaceae , 3-5 m to the side of the entrance of to Cana gold mine. Preliminary analysis of its COI gene sequence shows that it is nearly identical to that of Platyphora microspina on Cerro Campana. Continuing observations at this and similar remote sites, coupled with molecular sequencing, should add considerably to our knowledge of this species and its relationship to Platyphora selva and similar species in South America.