RESEMBLANCES AMONG- ANIMALS. 93 



remarkable, another Longicorn of a distinct group, 

 Streptolabis hispoicles, was found by Mr. Bates, which 

 resembles the same insect with equal minuteness, a 

 case exactly parallel to that among butterflies, where 

 species of two or three distinct groups mimicked the 

 same Heliconia. Many of the soft -winged beetles 

 ( Malacoderms ) are excessively abundant in indivi- 

 duals, and it is probable that they have some similar 

 protection, more especially as other species often strik- 

 ingly resemble them. A Longicorn beetle, Psecilo- 

 derma terminale, found in Jamaica, is coloured exactly 

 in the same way as a Lycus (one of the Malacoderms) 

 from the same island. Eroschema poweri, a Longicorn 

 from Australia, might certainly be taken for one of 

 the same group, and several species from the Malay 

 Islands are equally deceptive. In the Island of Celebes 

 I found one of this group, having the whole body and 

 elytra of a rich deep blue colour, with the head only 

 orange ; and in company with it an insect of a totally 

 different family (Eucnemidae) with identically the same 

 colouration, and of so nearly the same size and form 

 as to completely puzzle the collector on every fresh 

 occasion of capturing them. I have been recently in- 

 formed by Mr. Jenner Weir, who keeps a variety of 

 small birds, that none of them will touch our com- 

 mon fC soldiers and sailors " (species of Malacoderms), 

 thus confirming my belief that they were a protected 

 group, founded on the fact of their being at once very 

 abundant, of conspicuous colours, and the objects of 

 mimicry. 



