12 MEANING OF SHAPES AND COLOURS OF THE MEMBRACIDJ^. 



seem also to be mimetic, as a glance at Plates XXXI. and XXXII. will suggest. The 

 model of Comhophora fjcskii (Plate XXXI., Figs. 1 and 2) appears to be a Cocci iwlla or a 

 Coccinel/a-Vxke, beetle. J3nt the pattern is so strongly developed and conspicuous as 

 to raise the suspicion of independent unpalatability and Miillerian association. The 

 simple effective Coccinelloid type of pattern and colouring is probably easily reached 

 by variation and selection, and is certainly prone to attract specially ])rotected forms 

 of the most varied affinities into synaposematic groups (see Tra/is. Eiil. Sue. Loinh, 

 1902, p. 520, and P.Z.S. 1902, pp. 268, 270). Another very conspicuous species 

 of the genus Comhophora, viz., C. trUh'ims, is also represented (Plate XXXI., Figs. 5, 5a). 

 The appearance, together with that of the form of C. beskii, shown in Fig. 2, suggests 

 an example of warning colours or mimicry, and the same interpretation probably 

 holds for the other types of colouration represented in Plate XXXI. — the species of 

 Combophora, shown in Figures 3, (5, and 7, and Aiic/nstrotiis obcuiis, seen in Fig. 4. As 

 regards the latter the white patch on the dark tegmina seems especially suggestive 

 of mimicry or warning colours. 



Looking back on the Daniiiue we are led to believe that at least much of the 

 mimicry in the group is Mullerian rather than Batesian, because of the tendency of 

 the resemblances to appear throughout whole genera, and because the colours and 

 patterns of many species have a marked conspicuousness of their own. 



Tile small fourth sul)-fami!y, the Trai/opijup, is illustrated on Plates XXXII. and 

 XXXIII. by the genera Drit/ojjn, C/w/z/oidca, and Iloriola. The group is probablv 

 mimetic, as Mr. Buckton suggests on p 155 ; but the conspicuous distasteful groups 

 among the Neotropical Rhynchota, as well as Coleoptera, should be investigated 

 for probable models. The shapes shown in Plate XXXI I., Figs. 8 and 9, and Plate 

 XXXIII. , Figs, la and 2, seem especially likely to resemble those of other distasteful 

 Ehynchota. Here too the Mullerian interpretation seems the more probable. 



The fifth sub-family, the Sjiii/iiiue, is a very large one. The most remarkable of 

 all the species of this remarkable section of the Homoptera are to be found here in 

 Cijphoiiia, and in the genera Boci/diiaii and CEda, placed by Mr. Bucktun between the 

 SiiiUiiiue and the Centrotidce. 



The remarkable combination of filaments and dilated spheres developed by the 

 pronotum in certain species of the genus Ci/phonia (Plate XXXIII. , Figs. 4, 5, G, 7, and 

 7a), may be compared with the still more extraordinary and complex structures in 

 Bocydiiim (Plate XLV., Figs. G, 7, and 8 ; Plate XLVL, Figs. 1, 2, and 2a). In the 

 absence of observations on the s[)ot, the most probable interpretation is to suppose 

 a cryptic resemblance to some vegetable structure, such as a spined fruit or seed 

 specially adapted for anchorage in the fur of animals ; or some complex development 

 of thorn or spine. When we consider hov/ tar the Neotropical Region surpasses the 



