94 MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 



There are a number of the larger tropical weevils 

 which have the elytra and the whole covering of the 

 body so hard as to be a great annoyance to the entomo- 

 logist, because in attempting to transfix them the points 

 of his pins are constantly turned. I have found it ne- 

 cessary in these cases to drill a hole very carefully with 

 the point of a sharp penknife before attempting to insert 

 a pin. Many of the fine long-antennsed AnthribidaB (an 

 allied group) have to be treated in the same way. We 

 can easily understand that after small birds have in vain 

 attempted to eat these insects, they should get to know 

 them by sight, and ever after leave them alone, and it 

 will then be an advantage for other insects which are 

 comparatively soft and eatable, to be mistaken for them. 

 We need not be surprised, therefore, to find that there 

 are many Longicorns which strikingly resemble the 

 "hard beetles " of their own district. In South Brazil, 

 Acanthotritus dorsalis is strikingly like a Curculio of the 

 hard genus Heiliplus, and Mr. Bates assures me that he 

 found Grymnocerus cratosomoides (a Longicorn) on the 

 same tree with a hard Cratosomus (a weevil), which it 

 exactly mimics. Again, the pretty Longicorn, Phacel- 

 locera batesii, mimics one of the hard Anthribidse of the 

 genus Ptychoderes, having long slender antenna. In 

 the Moluccas we find Cacia anthriboides, a small Longi- 

 corn which might be easily mistaken for a very common 

 species of Anthribidse found in the same districts ; and 

 the very rare Capnolymma stygium closely imitates the 

 common Mecocerus gazella, which abounded where it 

 was taken. Doliops curculionoides and other allied' 



