Ck. XVIL] MIMETIC COLEOPTEEA. 317 



him, and would sometimes smell them, but invariably 

 rolled them up in his hand and dropped them quietly 

 again after a few moments. A large species of spider 

 (Nephila) also used to drop them out of its web when I 

 put them into it. Another spider that frequented flowers 

 seemed to be fond of them, and I have already mentioned 

 a wasp that caught them to store its nest with. There 

 could be no doubt, however, from the monkey's actions, 

 that tjiey were distasteful to him. 



Amongst the beetles there is a family that is just as 

 much mimicked as the Heliconii are amongst the butter- 

 flies. These are the Lampyridae, to which the fireflies 

 belong. Many of the genera are not phosphorescent, but 

 all appear to be distasteful to insectivorous mammals and 

 birds. I found they were invariably rejected by the 

 monkey, and my fowls would not touch them. 



The genus Calopteron belonging to this family is not 

 phosphorescent. In some of the species, as in C. basalt's, 

 (Klug), the wing-covers are widened out behind in a 

 peculiar manner. This and other species of Calopteron 

 are not only imitated in their colour and markings by 

 other families of beetles but also in this peculiar widening 

 of the elytra. Besides this, the Calopteron when walking 

 on a leaf raises and depresses its wing cases, and I ob- 

 served exactly the same movement in a longicorn beetle 

 (Evander noli/is, Bates) which is evidently a mimetic 

 form of this species. In addition to being mimicked by 

 other families of beetles, Calopteron is closely resembled 

 by a species of moth (Pionia hjcoidcs, Walker). This 

 moth varies itself in colour ; in one of the varieties it has 

 a central black band across the wings, when it resembles 

 Calopteron vicinuni (Deyrolle), in another this black band 



