A MADAGASCAR BEETLE. 



227 



how excellently the colours harmonize, and how the insect 

 and the bark seem almost to merge one into the other.* 



There is found in Madagascar a small beetle, which, 

 looked at apart from its natural surroundings, has nothing 

 specially interesting about it, except that it is a conspicuous, 

 rugged looking, pure white and black insect, about three- 

 quarters of an inch long. It feeds upon a species of 

 fungus, which grows upon the bark of trees in mixed 

 cream and black coloured patches. The beetle is shewn at 

 the top of Fig. 26, and beneath it a piece of twig with the 



Fig. 26. Liihinus ntgi-ocristatus (Madagascar.) The upper 

 figures shew beetle and bark separately, and in the lower figure 

 the beetle is on the bark. 



fungus growing upon it. At the bottom of the same 

 illustration the same piece of fungus-covered twig is shewn, 



* I am greatly indebted to my friend Colonel W. G. Clements for many beautiful and 

 remarkable specimens of Protective Resemblance, including those illustrated in Figs. 22 

 to 26. 



