326 SPECIES OF coELUs (coleoptera; tenebrionidae) 



character of body form, sculpturing or color, they constitute a 

 grade to which the term form (forma) is applicable. The rela- 

 tionship of the individuals as regards each other and sex is what 

 by common consent constitutes the grade of species. 



So it is with the species of Coelus (globosus, ciliatus and arenar- 

 ius). The recognition of forms is an aid in estimating individual 

 variation and should be a check to considering them varieties or 

 subspecies, which are grades of a higher order. These grades 

 signify that a particular form is capable of reproducing more or 

 less true to type of variation; in the first instance intermixed 

 with the type form and in the second instance occupying a region 

 separated from that inhabited by the type form. In both 

 instances there are reversions to type form. These variations 

 are physiological rather than morphological. 



To consider intra-specific forms as defined above as varieties 

 or subspecies is not logical or scientific, but on the contrary 

 arbitrary and theoretical, depending on the view point and per- 

 sonal equation of the author. 



Variations in body form, sculpturing and color occur among 

 individuals that have developed from a batch of eggs laid by a 

 single female. So then if brothers and sisters are separated and 

 placed as different species, as is actually being done in the pres- 

 ent day it is time to stop talking about scientific taxonomy. A 

 great deal of this comes from ignorance of the true relationships 

 in nature. Hence describing new species from uniques or very 

 small series is more pardonable than when a large series of 

 individuals is subdivided on trivial differences of body form, 

 sculpturing or color. How would it do to treat the human 

 species in the same way? 



Personally the author has found it difficult to keep within the 

 bounds of his own convictions, for often what is considered a form 

 will be found to predominate in some region and to reproduce 

 quite true to type, with a varying nvmiber of reversions to the 

 type form. It is best to be conservative and to wait until facts 

 arc observed or verified in the field, rather than assumed in the 

 laboratory, where theoretical assumption runs wild. 

 Coelus ciliatus variety debilis Casey 



A long series has been taken from the sand dunes about San 

 Francisco and to the southward, as well as at Dipsea and Tomales 



