( Ixvi ) 



illustrating the Lycoid and (Jantharoid groups respectively : 

 the observations which remain to be made with regard to 

 the general subject are inexhaustible, but it appears })lain 

 that the chief families of Coleoptera which enter into 

 synaposematic combinations are the following, and I should 

 be inclined to group them in the following order of im- 

 portance : — 1. Malacodei'mid;e, IMelyridie and Cantharidje. 

 2. Coccinellidje. 3. Erotyiida^, Endomychid;e and Chrysome- 

 lida?. 4. C'leri(la>. Certain other families, such as the 

 Pyrochroidie and Lagriidre, might perhaps l)e added. 



It is probable also that among the Longicorns, members 

 which imitate species of all the families above mentioned, as 

 well as many others, there are a considerable number of dis- 

 tasteful species, and that in this respect they resemble the 

 Papilionida^ among the Lepidoptera.. 



Perhaps one of the most striking of the many instances 

 of synaposematic coloration is found in the assumption of a 

 simple yet peculiar banding or marking by insects of different 

 orders {or widely differing insects of the same order) in a 

 particular country or district. Thus we have yellow Australian 

 S2)ecies of Diptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera with a very 

 marked broad black baud round the abdomen, and so very 

 closely resembling each other, while in Africa we get sets of 

 dark-winged insects of all orders, or gi'oups of Hymenoptera, 

 with the apex of the abdomen broadly yellow, which are 

 mostly synaposematic. 



lu all the groups it cannot be too strongly insisted upon 

 that the general appeai-ance of the insects when on the 

 wing, or in motion of any sort, must always be taken into 

 consideration. Many insects which are totally different when 

 at I'cst are very hai'd to distinguish when flying, and it is 

 during movement that protection is most needed : there can 

 be no better proof that the resemblance between Clytus 

 arietis and a wasp is a real and signiticant one than the 

 fact that the beetle bears out its wasp-like resemblance 

 in its movements. To those who do not take conditions of 

 flight into consideration, Mr. Marshall's plates (Trans. Ent. 

 Soc, Part III, pi. xxi to xxiii), representing the dark-winged 

 ]\Iashonaland Aculeates and their mimics, and other South 



