IX 
WARNING COLORATION AND MIMICRY 
257 
like the same extent among the edible species. The explana¬ 
tion of the various phenomena of resemblance and mimicry, 
presented by the distasteful butterflies, may now be considered 
tolerably complete. 
Mimicry in other Orders of Insects. 
A very brief sketch of these phenomena will be given, 
chiefly to show that the same principle prevails throughout 
nature, and that, w'herever a rather extensive group is 
protected, either by distastefulness or offensive weapons, 
there are usually some species of edible and inoffensive 
groups that gain protection by imitating them. It has been 
already stated that the Telephoridse, Lampyridae, and other 
families of soft-winged beetles, are distasteful; and as they 
abound in all parts of the world, and especially in the tropics, 
it is not surprising that insects of many other groups should 
imitate them. This is especially the case with the longicorn 
beetles, which are much persecuted by insectivorous birds ; and 
everywhere in tropical regions some of these are to be found 
so completely disguised as to be mistaken for species of the 
protected groups. Numbers of these imitations have been 
already recorded by Mr. Bates and myself, but I will here 
refer to a few others. 
In the recently published volumes on the Longicorn and 
Malacoderm beetles of Central America 1 there are numbers of 
beautifully coloured figures of the new r species; and on looking- 
over them we are struck by the curious resemblance of some 
of the Longicorns to species of the Malacoderm group. In 
some cases w r e discover perfect mimics, and on turning to the 
descriptions Ave always find these pairs to come from the 
same locality. Thus the Otheostethus melanurus, one of the 
Prionidse, imitates the malacoderm, Lucidota discolor, in 
form, peculiar coloration, and size, and both are found at 
Chontales in Nicaragua, the species mimicked having, how¬ 
ever, as is usual, a wider range. The curious and very rare 
little longicorn, Tethlimmena aliena, quite unlike its nearest 
allies in the same country, is an exact copy on a somewhat 
smaller scale of a malacoderm, Lygistopterus amabilis, both 
1 Godman and Salvin’s Biologia Centrali- American a, Insecta, Coleoptera, 
vol. iii. part ii., and vol. v. 
