64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



Endomychidae, and Pyrochroidae." The Cleridae are cited as a family 

 that while undoubtedly distasteful, in forming color associations take 

 the colors and patterns of other insects " rather than impress the 

 stamp of their own likeness on the assemblage." The following four 

 families are said to be " at any rate partially distasteful " : Scarabae- 

 idae, Cetoniidae, Tencbrionidae, and Lagriidae. The longicorns are 

 thought to include a few distasteful species in addition to many that 

 mimic aculeate Hymenoptera and other specially defended insects. 

 Cicindelidae are said by Wallace to be protected by cryptic coloration, 

 the refuge of the weak, while Poulton and Shelford have recorded 

 them as models mimicked by species less prepared for the struggle 

 for existence — a tribute to the strong. 



" The Carabidae are a powerful specially defended group," writes 

 Poulton (op. cit., pp. 513-514) " and it is of advantage to be recognized 

 as belonging to the group, even though it is no doubt of still greater 

 advantage to be mistaken, as may happen at a distance, or on a super- 

 ficial view, or during rapid movement, for the still more formidable 



Mutillidae and ants " " Dr. A. R. Wallace has always thought 



that the extreme hardness of the mimicked Curculionidae and An- 

 thribidae is the character which protects them." (Poulton, op. cit., 

 pp. 522-523.) 



Comment of this kind could be cited indefinitely, for something or 

 other has been claimed to be " special protection " for practically every 

 group of beetles. It is undesirable and unnecessary to cite this matter 

 in detail, but some attention should be given to the subject of repug- 

 natorial secretions which has figured considerably in accounts of 

 protective adaptations of beetles. For convenience, a summary of the 

 occurrence of such secretions is quoted from a recent article on the 

 topic : 



" It has been well understood that the presence of defensive or 

 repugnatorial scent glands in certain insects exists in direct adaptation 

 to the needs and habits of their owners and in close response to their 

 environment ; also that such glands are of very frequent occurrence 

 and with much variation as to position, form, and function ; and that 

 iheir presence is of value to the insect for repellent, defensive and 



warning purposes Biologically speaking, the principle involved 



in such cases, though often modified, is practically identical with that 

 of the mei:)hitic, sulphuretted, oil-like fluid ejected by the skunks. Thus 

 far anal glands are known to be present in the following families of 

 Coleoptera: Cicindelidae, Carabidae, Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Staphy- 

 linidae, Silphidae, and Tenebrionidae. The blood itself serves as a 



