394 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. V, 
Duration of Successive Death Feints. 
It was the experience of Fabre (4) that when a large beetle, 
Scarites gigas, Fabre was put into five successive death feints, 
they lasted 17 minutes, then 20, 25, 33, and 50 minutes respec- 
tively. From this behavior, he draws the conclusion: Ils 
nous qu’en général le Scarite prolonge advantage sa pose inerte 
& mesure que l’epreuve se répéte.”” The results of the Severins 
(10), however, do not agree with those of Fabre. They finda 
“wide variability in the duration of the first five feints in the 
different individuals under uniform conditions’’, and also ‘‘that 
the duration of successive death feints in each individual 
also varies.”’ 
Our experiments show results much more in accord with the 
Severins than with Fabre as observation of the following table 
will serve to show. Quite a wide range of variation is here to 
be seen, three of the six individuals showing a less duration of 
response in the fifth than in the first feint into which they 
were placed. 
TABLE I. 
DURATION IN MINUTES OF FrrsTt FIVE SUCCESSIVE DEATH FEINTS IN SIX CURCULIOS. 
A B C D E F AVERAGES 
1 10 8 6 6. 3 5.66 
12 2 11 2 8.5 ree 6.83 
7415 Hed Bd eet) 2 9 4.66 
3 1-5 25 1 1. 10 3.16 
8 3 15) ike 7 28 8 
Six specimens were tested in order to determine the length 
of time the feint might be successively induced. Holmes (6) 
found in the case of ten Ranatras successively put into death 
feints, that these were continued without interruption from 
9 a.m. to 5p. m., when the last specimen refused to feign longer. 
The Severins (10) found it possible in the case of Belostoma to 
induce feints successively for a total of five hours. The 
responses of the curculio were very much less pronounced than 
was the case of these forms. Feints could not be elicited 
