202 ANIMAL COLORATION. 



animals. More birds and reptiles, for example, will eat tile- 

 caterpillar of the large Garden White Butterfly than will cut 

 the larva of the Cinnabar-moth ; and this latter, in spite of its 

 more conspicuous colours, is apparently, if there is any difference, 

 less objectionable on the whole than the Gooseberry caterpillar 

 (Abraxas grossulariata). If there arc' these differences we 

 might be justified in putting down the mimicry of the dis- 

 tasteful Heliconinx o/cn/fc by the also distasteful Meclxniiti* 

 l_'/simnia, as a case of mimicry between a highly disagreeably - 

 flavoured insect and a relatively palatable one. 



Mimicry between Insects belonging to Different Orders. 



Mimicry among insects is not, however, confined to a more 

 or less close resemblance between individual species of allied 

 families, as in the examples already selected. Perhaps the 

 most striking facts concern the resemblances between insects 

 belonging to (piite different orders. 



In this country there are a number of moths popularly 

 termed Clearwings which would be taken by the uninitiated 

 for wasps and flies. The wings are but slightly covered with 

 scales, and the body is often banded with yellow. It has even 

 been stated that some of the species, when handled, writhe the 

 abdomen as if about to sting. It has been stated that some 

 species at any rate give off the characteristic odour of hornets. 

 In spite of this superficial resemblance to various species of the 

 orders Hymenoptera and Diptera, the Clearwings undoubtedly 

 belong to the Lepidoptera. Some instances of mimicry among 

 the Clearwings in some respects even more striking than is. 

 afforded by the British species have been lately described 

 in the Transactions of the Entomological Society ; * one or 



* In a paper by Col. Swinhoe, Trails. Ent. Soc., 189<>. 



