The reservoirs of dorso-abdominal scent glands and the occurrence of the metapleural scent gland evaporatoria in the adults of nine central European and one North American species in the family Rhopalidae (Hemiptera) were studied. All published data about the persistence of the dorso-abdominal scent glands in rhopalid adults are reviewed, and systematic and phylogenetic implications are derived from the patterns of variation.