HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY, 



59 



taste bad, and yet are not eaten, because in flight, 

 in outline, and in marking of the wings they imitate the 

 Hcliconia so closely that even a systematist might be 

 easily deceived as to the systematic position (Fig. 13). 

 In a similar way bees and wasps, feared on account of 

 their sting, are imitated by other insects. In Borneo there 

 lives a large black wasp, whose wings have a broad white 



FIG. 14. a, Mygnimia aviculus, a wasp imitated by a beetle ; 6, Coloborhombtis fasciati- 

 pennis. (After Wallace.) | nat. size. 



spot near the tip (^[ygniinia avicnlus). Its imitator is a 

 heteromerous beetle (Coloborkombus fasciatipcnnis), which, 

 quite contrary to the habit of beetles, keeps its hinder 

 wings extended, showing the white spot at their tips, 

 while the wing-covers have become small oval scales 

 (Fig. 14). 



Sexual Selection is understood to mean a special 



