Description of the final instar larva of Mesomphalia gibbosa (Fabricius, 1781) (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cassidinae, Stolaini)

Cassidinae has around 6.000 species, with 1.000 recorded to Brazil, however only 6% of them have descriptions and some biological information available. Hope (1839) described Mesomphalia to Cassida gibbosa Fabricius, which is within Stolaini, and now comprises 16 species with wide distribution in South America, mainly to Brazil on its southern region. The only record on host plant is Asteracea, to Mesomphalia gibbosa. Two larvae were collected at Escoteiro Chefe Geraldo Hugo Nunes, Guapimirim city, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. One of them was fixed in alcohol 75%, and the other was raised, so that we could get the adult. The specimens were deposited in the collection of the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Some of the main characters from the larva are: body with dorsal surface densely microtrichiate, yellow, short and sparse setae along the body; 14 pairs of dorso-lateral scoli and one pair of caudal process; six equally sized stemmata present, with four arranged in a semicircular row near antennal insertion and two widely separated stemmata, near ventral region; thorax with pronotum overlapping head and margin with three paired scoli, two antero-laterally, with different sizes, third postero-laterally; abdomen ten-segmented; segments 1-8 with paired lateral scoli; caudal process paired, long, unbranched, tapered, dorsally projected; surface smooth, sparse setae present, asperities absent.