A summary of literature, documented observations and field studies finds evidence that mothers actively defend offspring in at least eight species and three genera of Neotropical Chrysomelinae associated with two host plant families. Reports on three Doryphora species reveal that all are oviparous and feed on vines in the Apocyanaceae. Mothers in the two subsocial species defend eggs and larvae by straddling, blocking access at the petiole and greeting potential predators with leaf-shaking and jerky advances. A less aggressive form of maternal care is found in two Platyphora and four Proseicela species associated with Solanaceae, shrubs and small trees. For these and other morphologically similar taxa associated with Solanaceae, genetic distances support morphology-based taxonomy at the species level, reveal one new species, but raise questions regarding boundaries separating genera. We urge continued study of these magnificent insects, their enemies and their defenses, both behavioral and chemical, especially in forests along the eastern versant of the Central and South American cordillera.

This contribution looks at the way instinct is transmittedand represented as ghost appearance. The essay elaboratestwo basic theses: first, that instinct is not definedby creaturely heritage, since it is not a testable structurein itself, nor subject to mourning and developmentalprocesses; and second, that works of fine literature andpop oeuvres alike may serve as carriers of a ghost transmissioncharged with instinctive heritage. The studyrepresents a model for reading ghostly genealogies thatcomplement the familiar and familial reproductive onesas it draws on traditions such as the adultery novel, continentalphilosophy, psychoanalysis, and Disney.Currently based in Berlin, Viola Kolarov has taught inthe German Departments of the Johns Hopkins Universityand New York University. She has published onShakespeare, contemporary art, film, and pop culture.Her forthcoming book, “Shakespeare and the Autobiographyof the Machine Age,” rethinks Goethe, theGerman translation/transmission of Shakespeare, andthe German literary tradition in the contexts of mediatechnology.Originally from Berlin, Susanne Lanckowsky enteredthe Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, class of Franz Ackermann,in 2007. Since 2009 she has shown solo and ingroup on numerous occasions and studied abroad withprestigious scholarship support for one semester at theFaculdade de Belas Artes Universidade do Porto, Portugal,and for another semester at the Escuela Nacional dePintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda in Mexico.