96 MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 



imitate other insects, and insects of other orders imi- 

 tate beetles. 



Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of 

 the family Necydalidse, has been so named from its 

 resemblance to a small bee of the genus Melipona. 

 It is one of the most remarkable cases o^ mimicry, 

 since the beetle has the thorax and body densely hairy 

 like the bee, and the legs are tufted in a manner most 

 unusual in the order Coleoptera. Another Longicorn, 

 Odontocera ody nereides, has the abdomen banded with 

 yellow, and constricted at the base, and is altogether 

 so exactly like a small common wasp of the genus Ody- 

 nerus, that Mr. Bates informs us he was afraid to take it 

 out of his net with his fingers for fear of being stung. 

 Had Mr. Bates's taste for insects been less omnivorous 

 than it was, the beetle's disguise might have saved it 

 from his pin, as it had no doubt often done from the 

 beak of hungry birds. A larger insect, Sphecomorpha 

 chalybea, is exactly like one of the large metallic blue 

 wasps, and like them has the abdomen connected with 

 the thorax by a pedicel, rendering the deception most 

 complete and striking. Many Eastern species of Lon- 

 gicorns of the genus Oberea, when on the wing ex- 

 actly resemble Tenthredinidae, and many of the small 

 species of Hesthesis run about on timber, and cannot 

 be distinguished from ants. There is one genus of 

 South American Longicorns that appears to mimic 

 the shielded bugs of the genus Scutellera. The Gym- 

 nocerous capucinus is one of these, and is very 

 like Pachyotris fabricii, one of the Scutelleridae. The 



