DIFFERENTIATION OF THE CARABID 
ANTENNA CLEANER 1 
By T. F. Hlavac 2 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
Harvard University 
The antennae of most carabids are groomed by tightly packed 
setae on the protibia. The mouthparts are not employed in antenna 
cleaning in ground beetles, but are so used in many 'Coleoptera 
(Jander, 1966, table 2). A protibial antenna cleaner may be pri- 
mitively absent only in Nototylus (Banninger 1927: 771) but is 
secondarily lost in advanced paussines (Darlington 1950: 65). There 
is great variation in the degree of development of the cleaning setae 
and in protibial structure. This paper describes and analyzes struc- 
tural differentiation of the carabid antenna cleaner, and presents 
preliminary data on grooming behavior. Work on the fine structure 
and histology of the cleaning setae and associated glands is in 
progress and will be reported elsewhere. 
The protibiae of about 100 genera representing 60 tribes were 
studied; 50 species were measured. A description of methods em- 
ployed and a formal list of carabids examined in this study will be 
presented in a paper on prothoracic morphology of the Coleoptera. 
Structure. The antenna grooming setae are located on the medial 
face of the tibia; there are two types of setal aggregations. The 
major cleaning element is the setal band (Figs. 1, 21 SB). It is 
composed of very tightly packed setae arranged in a single file that 
always begins near the anterior spur and may extend nearly hori- 
zontally across the width of the medial face (Figs. 2, 7, 9) or may 
extend vertically up the length of the tibia for a considerable dis- 
tance (Figs. 1, 3, 15 SB). The second type of cleaning cluster con- 
sists of relatively short, less densely packed vertical rows of setae, 
usually in single file, originating above the tibial spurs (Figs. 1, 21 
ASR, PSR). In a few carabids dense setal rows, which are prob- 
ably used in grooming, extend above both the anterior and posterior 
J A preliminary version of this work was submitted as a portion of a 
thesis to the Biology Department, Harvard University, in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. 
2 I thank Drs. P. J. Darlington, Jr. and J. F. Lawrence for reading the 
manuscript. This work was supported, in part, by NSF GB12346, P. J. 
Darlington, Jr., Principal Investigator; and NSF GB 19922, Reed Rollins, 
Principal Investigator. 
Manuscript received by the editor May 14, 1971. 
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