in certain South African Lamellicorns. 93 



Braconid {Zomhrus, sp,). The Gamciis resembles the 

 HajdolycKS the other vv'ay on, the head of the one being 

 coloured like the tail of the other, but probably that fact 

 does not detract from any benefit that it may derive from 

 the likeness. Mr, G. A. K. Marshall has proved experi- 

 mentally that Lycoid beetles are very distasteful to 

 Kestrels and Baboons* Gamctis haltcata may now be 

 added to the wonderful synaposematic Lycoid group 

 figured in Plate XIII of Mr. Marshall's paper. 



HoPLiiNJi:. 



We met with thirteen species of Hopliinie in Cape Colony. 

 The most obvious characteristic of the group is the great 

 length of their posterior legs. The development of these 

 varies greatly in different species, but in the majority of 

 cases is much greater in the males than in the females. 

 Indeed in some species the male femora and tibifB are gro- 

 tesquely disproportioned to the animals ; moreover both 

 femora and tibiae are provided on their inner sides with 

 strong spurs or spines (perhaps better described as teeth). 

 These strange limbs evidently attracted the attention of 

 the older writers, since Fabricius named one species dcnt- 

 ipes, and Burmeister ^uoihex forciimtiis. The explanation 

 of these hypertrophied legs that is usually received is that 

 they are used by the males to grasp the females. Mr. 

 Trimen, accepting this explanation, tells me that he thinks 

 that copulation is attended with especial difficulty in these 

 beetles. 



The latest writer on the subject, Mr. P^ringuey, rejects 

 the ordinary explanation in the following words :— 



" The great development of the hind-legs is not intended 

 for securing a better hold of the female. There is nothing 

 more ridiculous than to see half-a-dozen males with their 

 long hind-legs emerging from the pistils of a composite 

 flower where they are mobbing a female which is almost 

 entirely buried head foremost in the pistils, the sub-hori- 

 zontal pygidium alone being exposed to view. But it is 

 when disentangling themselves that the use of the long 

 hind-legs becomes apparent ; by means of his long, hinged 

 claw the male hooks himself out of the corolla. It is not 

 only amongst the flower-frequenting kinds that this extra- 

 ordinary development of the hind-legs with their curiously 



* Transactions Ent. Soc. Loud., 1902, Part II, pp. 340, 344, 380. 



