Tlu Bionomics of South African Insects. 411 



them and Hymeuoptcra Aculeata of other sections. The 

 present memoir contains splendid examples of Mttllerian 

 or synaposematic associations between inedible forms such 

 as LycidcV and stinging Aculeates (see p. 517), and the 

 resemblance between AhxiMis and a wasp is probably of 

 the same kind, as I suggested in 1887. 



My friend Professor W. M. Wheeler of the University 

 of Texas has also tasted a Syrphid fly, S])ilomyia fitsca 

 (Loew), which mimics Vcspa maculaia as well as a smaller 

 wasp. The fly was " found to have an agreeable flavour, 

 the alimentary tract of the insect being full of honey." 

 Hence in this case Professor Wheeler concludes that the 

 colours of the fly are " associated with the absence of dis- 

 agreeable smell and taste, as the generally accepted theory 

 of mimicry requires" ("Science," N. S. vol. vi, No. 154, 

 p. 887, Dec. 10, 1897). Still later in "The Century 

 Magazine " fur July 1901, p. 378, Professor Wheeler 

 describes another experiment as follows: — "The writer 

 while riding through the deserts of Wyoming some years 

 ago was impressed with the day-flying moths (Fscudohnzis) 

 flitting leisurely along near the ground or resting fully 

 exposed on the glaucous spikes of the sage-brush. . . . 

 They had black-and-white wings and black-and-orange 

 bodies. So striking was this case of apparent warning 

 colour that the writer after much hesitation decided to 

 ascertain by means of the only available experiment 

 whether the insect really possessed the ' nauseous pro- 

 perties ' so generally assumed in such cases by writers on 

 the subject of animal coloration. He dismounted from 

 his horse and proceeded to masticate the body of one of 

 the moths. To his astonishment, the little flavour that it 

 contained was mild and pleasant — one might almost say, 

 nut-like." The writer also records that lizards previously 

 fed on house-flies, and therefore not very hungry, " devoured 

 with evident signs of relish " several of the conspicuous 

 day-flying moths Alypia octomaculata. Professor Wheeler 

 concludes " that if every field-entomologist could only 

 bring himself to repeat the writer's experiment on one of 

 many cases of ' flaunted nauseousness,' and place his taste- 

 impressions on record, we should in the course of time 

 have a really valuable body of evidence, for we can hardly 

 assume that beasts, birds, and reptiles can find things 

 'nauseous' which are quite tasteless or even pleasant to 

 the human palate." 



