30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
that the patterns are not individual particularities, except in a few 
equivocal cases.’ The patterns rather characterize species, more fre- 
quently taxonomic groups (genera, families, suborders, or orders). 
Repeated samplings of hemolymph collected from several speci- 
mens of the same species, or from different species belonging to the 
same higher taxonomic category, made it possible to record consis- 
tently the same pattern in groups of various taxonomic importance 
such as the Orthopteroid complex (pattern I),* several families of 
Heteroptera (especially Reduviidae, Coreidae, Pentatomidae) (pat- 
tern IV), Belostomatidae and Nepidae (pattern 1), three families of 
Homoptera (Cicadidae, Fulgoridae, Cicadellidae) (pattern I), among 
Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae (pattern IV), Staphylinidae (pattern LVS 
several subfamilies of Scarabaeidae (Rutelinae, Melolonthinae, Dy- 
nastinae, Geotrupinae, Trichiinae and Cetoninae) (pattern II), 
Heteromera (Tenebrionidae, Lagriidae, Monommidae, Oedemeridae 
and Meloidae; patterns I and III), Cerambycidae (pattern I), Cur- 
culionidae (pattern IV), several families of Lepidoptera (larvae; 
pattern II), Tenthredinidae (patterns I and III). 
3. Other groups (Cicindelidae, Carabidae, Dytiscidae, Silphidae, 
Passalidae, Coprinae, Elateridae) exhibited large intraspecific and 
interspecific variations in the patterns of coagulation recorded. In 
view of the diversity of the reactions in these groups, the pattern 
representative or predominant could not be established with certainty. 
However, at the genus level predominance of a pattern appeared in 
genera such as Carabus (pattern III), Agra (pattern 1), Hydaticus 
(pattern IV), Dytiscus (pattern III) Cybister (pattern 1), Necro- 
phorus (pattern I). 
4. In the homogeneous groups listed above, the Neotropical ma- 
terial and the insects from the Old World supplied identical results 
orthopteroid complex (pattern I), in insects from several families of Scara- 
baeidae (Rutelinae, Melolonthinae, Dynastinae, Cetoninae) (pattern II), He- 
teromera (pattern III), and other groups of insects in which no visible modi- 
fication could be detected in the plasma (e.g., Staphylinidae, Hydrophilidae, and 
many Heteroptera) (pattern IV) under the phase-contrast microscope. 
4Grégoire (1951, 1955); Grégoire and Jolivet (unpublished). The total 
material investigated consists of approximately 5,300 samples of hemolymph, 
collected from 3,400 specimens belonging to about 850 species. 
5In most of these cases, the scarcity of the material available suggests that 
individual variations, incomplete reactions, or accidental artifacts (mechanical 
agencies; see Grégoire 1955a, p. 124ff.) might confuse the actual pattern. 
®6In the highly homogeneous orthopteroid complex, differences in the inten- 
sity of the clotting reaction could be detected between several groups (see 
table). 
