176 Notes on Insectivorous Coleoptera. 



fighting force than is necessary to the ordinary adminis- 

 tration of his government, in order that he may liave al- 

 ways a reserve of power with which to meet aspiring re- 

 bellion, so it is to the general advantage that carnivorous 

 insects should abound in larger numbers than could find 

 sustenance in the ordinary surplus of insect reproduction. 

 They will then be prepared to concentrate an overwhelm- 

 ing attack upon any group of insects which becomes sud- 

 denly superabundant. It is evidently impossible, how- 

 ever, that this reserve of predaceous species should be 

 maintained unless they could be supported, at least in 

 part, upon food derived from other sources than the bodies 

 of living animals. 



