98 MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 



black-banded wings and the abdomen tipped with rich 

 orange, so as exactly to resemble the fine bee Euglossa 

 dimidiata, and both are found in the same parts of 

 South America. We have also in our own country spe- 

 cies of Bombylius which are almost exactly like bees. 

 In these cases the end gained by 'the mimicry is no 

 doubt freedom from attack, but it has sometimes an 

 altogether different purpose. There are a number of 

 parasitic flies whose larva? feed upon the larvas of bees, 

 such as the British genus Volucella and many of 

 the tropical Bombylii, and most of these are exactly 

 like the particular species of bee they prey upon, so 

 that they can enter their nests unsuspected to deposit 

 their eggs. There are also bees that mimic bees. The 

 cuckoo bees of the genus Nomada are parasitic on the 

 Andrenidse, and they resemble either wasps or species 

 of Andrena ; and the parasitic humble-bees of the genus 

 Apathus almost exactly resemble the species of humble- 

 bees in whose nests they are reared. Mr. Bates informs 

 us that he found numbers of these " cuckoo" bees and 

 flies on the Amazon, which all wore the livery of 

 working bees peculiar to the same country. 



There is a genus of small spiders in the tropics which 

 feed on ants, and they are exactly like ants themselves, 

 which no doubt gives them more opportunity of seizing 

 their prey; and Mr. Bates found on the Amazon a 

 species of Mantis which exactly resembled the white 

 ants which it fed upon, as well as several species of 

 crickets (Scaphura), which resembled in a wonderful 

 manner different sand-wasps of large size, which are 



