7G MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 



protecting the flies from the attacks of the bees, and 

 the connection is so evident that it was hardly possible 

 to avoid this conclusion. The resemblance, however, 

 of moths to butterflies or to bees, of beetles to wasps, 

 and of locusts to beetles, has been many times noticed 

 by eminent writers ; but scarcely ever till within the 

 last few years does it appear to have been considered 

 that these resemblances had any special purpose, or 

 were of any direct benefit to the insects themselves. 

 In this respect they were looked upon as accidental, 

 as instances of the " curious analogies " in nature 

 which must be wondered at but which could not be ex- 

 plained. Recently, however, these instances have been 

 greatly multiplied; the nature of the resemblances 

 has been more carefully studied, and it has been found 

 that they are often carried out into such details as 

 almost to imply a purpose of deceiving the observer. 

 The phenomena, moreover, have been shown to follow 

 certain definite laws, which again all indicate their 

 dependence on the more general law of the " survival 

 of the fittest," or " the preservation of favoured races 

 in the struggle for life." It will, perhaps, be as well 

 here to state what these laws or general conclusions 

 are, and then to give some account of the facts which 

 support them. 



The first law is, that in an overwhelming majority of 

 cases of mimicry, the animals (or the groups) which 

 resemble each other inhabit the same country, the same 

 district, and in most cases are to be found together 

 on the very same spot. 



