During recent years banana plantations in some parts of tropical America have suffered somewhat severely from attacks of a Eumolpid beetle, Colaspis hyperchlora, Lefevre (1878). This species has up to now been recorded from the following countries : Colombia (type locality), British Guiana, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, British Honduras and Mexico.

The egg is pale lemon-yellow in colour, becoming brownish as the embryo approaches maturity, and broadly oval in shape with one end slightly more acute than the other ; length, 1·2 mm. The larva is whitish, with the head somewhat amber-coloured, the body being slender and hairy ; length, 1–1·5 mm. The pupa is dirty yellow, becoming darker as the adult becomes ready to emerge.

The eggs are deposited singly or in clusters varying in number from 5 to 45, in cavities gnawed by the female in the leaf-sheath of bananas near the crown just above the surface of the ground, on the surface roots in natural depressions or in cavities made by the female, and on the surface roots of the old “ mats.” The duration of the egg stage is from 7 to 9 days.

The larvae feed on the young roots, gnawing the soft epidermal tissues of the older roots, into which they tunnel. The duration of the larval stage is from 20 to 22 days.