SYNAPOSEMATIC ASSOCIATIONS 281 



As a better instance may be cited a number of Hymen- 

 optera of different groups which I found on the islands, 

 characterized by dark grey or dull black colouring with 

 a segment of the antennae and the tip of the abdomen 

 conspicuously white, and the transparent wings partly 

 clouded to form a pattern. Several species of Fossorial 

 and Parasitic Hymenoptera were collected that belonged 

 to this syn-aposematic association ; in one case, a Scoliid, 

 the white on the antennae was produced by white hairs, 

 and was not, as in the other species, the colour of the 

 integument. This is an interesting example of a point 

 with which Professor Poulton has dealt at some length, ^ 

 that natural selection has brought about the same effect 

 in different ways on different subjects, according to the 

 material offered for selection. Natural selection can 

 originate nothing ; it can only work with and modify 

 material offered to it by variation. This point can never 

 be kept too much in prominence. 



The best known syn-aposematic association centres 

 round the undoubtedly distasteful and conspicuous Mala- 

 coderm beetles of the family Lycidae — such insects are 

 very conveniently spoken of as " Lycoid." The Lycid 

 aposeme is a general colouration of bright orange-brown, 

 with the extremity of the abdomen and elytra black. 

 The antennae and limbs are black or black and orange. 

 The beetles are found collected in numbers ^ on flowering 

 bushes, are of sluggish habit, slow, heavy flight, unafraid, 

 and often exude a droplet of yellow fluid when handled, 

 and have been proved to be distasteful to vertebrate 

 enemies.' G. A. K. Marshall figured 4 a large number 

 of Lycoid insects belonging to many orders of insects. 

 In beetles and bugs {Hemiptera) the species are coloured 



^ See Essays on Evolution, pp. 2G4-6 ; also Punnett, Mmiicry in 

 Butterflies, pp. 40-2. 



2 Proc. Ent. Soc. Land., 1917, p. Ivii. 



» Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1902, Part III, pp. 347, 391. 



« Ibid. 



