68 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



one, — it is plain how useful the disguise would prove. And this 

 is exactly what takes place in Nature, — disguise is resorted to by 

 those who lack the armour, or the weapons, or the uneatableness 

 of the more favoured kinds. 



But few cases of actual " mimicry " in this restricted sense 

 have been recorded among the vertebrate animals, Mr. Wallace 

 citing only a few cases where harmless snakes (in Tropical 

 America) copy in a very striking manner certain venomous kinds, 

 and a group of orioles (in the Malayan Archipelago) unmistakably 

 imitate the strong and active honey-suckers of the genus Tropi- 

 dorhynchus. But amongst insects the number of such cases is 

 very large, and the record of them is constantly increasing, as 

 the life-history and habits of the lower animals are more closely 

 observed. 



Taking first the case of the mimicking of well-armed by 

 unarmed insects, we find that bees and wasps have excellent 

 imitators in the shape of many moths and two-winged flies, 

 of some beetles, and of a few crickets ; and that ants have also 

 beetle mimickers. The transparent-winged moths of the groups 

 represented by the genera Sesia, Mgeria, &c., and many species 

 of Glaucopidse, imitate so precisely the aspect of various stinging 

 Hymenoptera that no one but an entomologist could distinguish 

 them as Lepidoptera. One of these iEgeriid moths, Melittia 

 ursipes, is not uncommon in Natal ; its general aspect and 

 colouring, and densely hairy hind legs, make it exactly like 

 a small bee. Most people must have noticed the drone-flies 

 (Eristalis) which haunt flowers, and not only look like bees, but 

 get up a very fair imitation of an angry buzz, and even afi"ect 

 to possess a sting, when you hold them captive, by curving 

 round the hind body. South Africa abounds in beautiful bee-like 

 flies of the Bomhylius type ; and it is probable that, as has been 

 shown in Europe and elsewhere, the disguise of these flies (which 

 are in many cases parasitic as larvas upon bees) enables them to 

 enter, unsuspected and unharmed, the bees' nests, and there to 

 lay their eggs. The beetles that find their advantage in 

 resembling bees and wasj)s are chiefly members of the great 

 wood-eating tribe of Longicorns, and in several cases their 

 elytra are so much reduced as to leave nearly all of the folded 

 wing-surface visible, an arrangement which greatly aids in the 

 deception. Mr. Bates has recorded the wonderful resemblance 



