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 primitively 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 structural 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 employed 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 horizontally across the width of the medial face (Figs. 2, 7, 9) or may extend vertically up the length of the tibia for a considerable distance (Figs. 1, 3, 15 SB). The second type of cleaning cluster consists 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 probably 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.
As an insect pushes its dorsal surface against obstacles while moving through a substrate, the wings will tend to be orced apart.In many Coleoptera, such divergence is prevented by a complex of devices interlocking the elytra with the thorax and abdomen. A common interlocking mechanism involves intermeshing o parallel arrays of setae angled towards the potentially disrupting orce (Fig. 2)
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