72 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



must have had unusual hick in order to obtain the 12 specimens it 

 contained. 



Donisthorpe says " The Elaters ' feign death ' and their ability to 

 ' skip ' .... is no doubt of great use to them. Mr. Holland points 

 out that many of them possess a colour and shape suggesting the ap- 

 pearance of bits of dry brown stick." (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1901, 

 p. 360.) Over four thousand (4,489) records of these beetles being 

 eaten by nearctic birds show that the protective devices mentioned are 

 of no particular account. There would appear to be no doubt whatever 

 that birds feed upon Elateridae whenever available to them. 



The larvae of Buprestidae live in wood, and the adults have hard 

 chitin and metallic or other brilliant coloration, but since there are 

 more than 650 records of their occurrence in the stomach contents of 

 nearctic birds, it is certain that concealment of the larvae rather than 

 color protection is their main defense. Heteroceridae or mud beetles 

 certainly seem well concealed to the human eye but the records indi- 

 cate they are taken fully in proportion to their abundance. Dermes- 

 tidae, said to be protected because they are carrion-feeders, are taken 

 freely considering their availability in nature. Byrrhidae are thought 

 to be excellent examples of cryptically defended insects. " The legs 

 and antennae are packed close to the body, fitting into cavities for 

 their reception and the beetles then represent rabbits' dung, or little 

 lumps of earth ; they in no way suggest the appearance of living 

 beetles." (Donisthorpe, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1901, p. 357.) 

 However 312 records for them show American birds are not especially 

 deceived by the alleged protective devices. 



It is unnecessary to comment on every family, but coming to the 

 Erotylidae we have a group which though small in numbers is said 

 to be one of the most highly protected groups. However, in the United 

 States, insects of this family in general do not have the bold habits 

 supposed to be associated with warning colors ; in fact most of them 

 feed concealed in fleshy fungi. Correspondingly most of the determi- 

 nations of beetles of this family are for the species which live exposed 

 as Languria, for which there are 10 records, probably all that should 

 be expected for a single small genus. Similarly the Endomychidae 

 are protected by feeding inside of fungi or on fungi growing on the 

 under side of logs rather than by their " warning colors." It should 

 puzzle selectionists to explain why these and other brightly colored, 

 supposedly distasteful insects have such retiring habits that their 

 " warning coloration " is seldom displayed. 



Contrasting these elusive beetles with another brightly colored but 

 decidedly not secretive group they are supposed to mimic, the Coc- 



