20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I39 



Jolivet, pp. 36 and 37). Artifacts of preparation are responsible for 

 a part of the pictures recorded. Nutritional balance of the specimens 

 at the time of capture, seasonal and pathological conditions, able to 

 alter the sensitivity of the unstable hemocytes or the amounts of the 

 coagulable substances in the hemolymph, are among the factors which 

 might explain these discrepancies : change in the pattern of coagula- 

 tion has been observed in infected insects belonging to species or to 

 groups characterized in their normal conditions by another pattern 

 (Acrididae, Dermaptera, Cerambycidae) (see Gregoire and Jolivet, 

 1957, p. 36). Similarly, in a specimen of Gypona hebes from the pres- 

 ent material, exhibiting pattern IV (table, comments), the unstable 

 hemocytes responsible for the inception of the coagulation contained 

 unusual coarse granules, absent in the other normal specimens in 

 which the pattern representative of the group was observed. 



The present results support former conclusions (1957, p. 30) that 

 the patterns of coagulation are not individual particularities, but 

 rather characterize species, more frequently supraspecific categories. 



DIVERGENCES BETWEEN NEOTROPICAL MATERIAL AND INSECTS FROM 



THE OLD WORLD 



In 10 specimens belonging to 6 species of Neotropical Passalidae 

 (1957, p. 18, and here, table 1), pattern I was recorded exceptionally 

 in one sample from a single species, while this pattern, unmixed or 

 associated with pattern II ( = pattern III), appeared in the 5 African 

 species (25 specimens) available (Gregoire and Jolivet, 1957). 



Pattern I, absent from the samples of Neotropical Coprinae (4 spe- 

 cies, 8 specimens), was found, alone or associated with pattern II 

 (= pattern III), in 12 (29 specimens) out of 17 African species 

 examined (Gregoire and Jolivet, 1957), and was questionable in three 

 other species (5 specimens). 



These data might suggest the possibility of discrepancies, with 

 regard to these two families, between Neotropical and Old World 

 material. However, as already pointed out (Gregoire, 1957, p. 32), 

 large individual variations characterize these families, especially 

 Passalidae. Numerous samplings from insects of both origines, and 

 belonging to genera and species more closely related than those 

 available, are required before any conclusion might be drawn about 

 the existence of such discrepancies. 



SUMMARY 



1. Coagulation of the hemolymph from 400 (mostly adult) speci- 

 mens, belonging to 215 Neotropical species of insects, and including 



