I have yet to find a beetle , grub or caterpillar of any kind on this plant ... they seem to leave the blooms alone but decimate the leaves anyone have a likely suspect list ???

The book Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw (an entomologist) lists recorded pests by plant, and shows these leaf chewers for Malva: hollyhock leaf skeletonizer, painted lady, west coast lady and okra caterpillar.

Have you checked the undersides of the leaves?

yes i have ... I cant ever seem to catch em with thier mouth full of my leaves I think I may go out tomorrow with a paper towel and see if I end up with any bug stains its clobbering time

Have you tried looking with a flashlight after dark, since some sneaky pests are nocturnal?

DOH .... I just may do that ... my trail cams have IR night vision and can catch cats wallowing in my catnip patch and foxes raiding the bird seed fallen from the feeder but they don't do insect macro closeups ... maybe I can invent one ... I bet everyone here would buy 3

On the bright side, at least you can check for skunks before you venture out with the flashlight

I think I found the little bugstards who are eating my hollyhocks ... june beetles I have been handpicking milkweed beetles off my Incarnatas and japanese beetles off my Purple Loosestrife and caught one of the little JB's decimating my newly recovered Alcea rosea transplant . sadly the hollyhocks and loosestrife on the west side of the house are intermingled with the asclepias incarnata , tuberosa and the Anise Hyssop butterfly bushes . I wont make that mistake again , guess its manually pulling the lil bugstards untill they go away in a couple months