308 SUNDRY INSECTS 



A common colour scheme for large Braconids is orange 

 and black, and on Bugalla a Longicorn ^ beautifully 

 mimetic of these was found. Being long and narrow, 

 the beetle has a shape which affords a good basis for 

 the resemblance. The orange abdomen, however, does 

 not show the narrow waist of the Hymenopterous model, 

 to which the resemblance is produced by a portion of 

 the side of the base of the abdomen being of a glistening 

 white, contrasting strongly with the remainder, so that 

 that part in a high light suggests that it has been, to 

 use Professor Poulton's phrase, " painted out." The 

 first specimen that I found was a male which when 

 handled strongly curved the tip of the abdomen in such 

 a way as to suggest it was about to sting, and actually 

 protruded a flexible white viscus which it moved about 

 like a sting. Of course Braconidae are not strictly 

 stinging insects, yet when handled they will use the 

 ovipositor as such. The Hymenopteroid appearance of 

 the beetle with its false sting was so very striking that 

 although reason told me it was a beetle, instinct was 

 so strong that misgivings almost prevented me handling 

 it, and I feel certain the very great majority of people 

 would have dropped the beetle in a panic. On the 

 wing the resemblance is much greater ; both insects 

 have a slow, steady flight, and the long antennae are 

 extremely conspicuous. The wings of the beetle are 

 transparent and invisible during flight, but the orange, 

 black-tipped, wing covers reproduce the appearance of 

 the similarly coloured wings of the Braconid. Several 

 smaller species of Longicorns also very closely resemble 

 smaller black and yellow Braconids, so that even after 

 several years of field work one is still deceived and, 

 catching an insect which one has thought to be a Braconid, 

 finds a beetle in the net.* 



* Dirphya, species near pHnceps. 



' This happened to me repeatedly in 1917 in Gennftn East Africa. 

 See Proo. Ent. Soc, 1918, pp. cxxxviii-cxlii. 



