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X. Mimicry of Ants by other Arthropods. By Horace 
DonistHorPE, F.Z.S., ete. 
[Read June Ist, 1921.] 
Mimicry. 
Numerous Arthropods are very ant-like in appearance, 
and such resemblances are not surprising considering that 
ants are on the whole very well protected. Their pro- 
tection is brought about by many different causes, especially 
the vast numbers in some colonies all ready to come to each 
other’s assistance, and overwhelm an enemy by sheer weight 
of numbers. They also possess various methods of offence 
and defence — well-developed stings; poison and repug- 
natorial glands, ejecting acid and offensive discharges ; 
marked odours; hardness of integument; defensive spines, 
etc., ete. I propose to divide the mimicry of ants into the 
following sections :— 
1. Mimicry of ants by other Arthropods which do not 
live with them, neither feeding on, nor having any direct 
association with them. Such mimics are in no way 
Myrmecophiles, and may be called Simple Myrmecoids. 
Perhaps the best-known example is the little Locustid 
Myrmecophana fallax found in the Soudan [and perhaps in 
Rhodesia also; see Poulton “ Essays on Evolution,” 257 
n. 1 (1908)]; its resemblance to an ant is brought about by 
the arrangement of pale colouring beneath and on the 
sides, and not by the actual shape of the insect. Various 
spiders, bugs (Heteroptera and Homoptera, including the 
Membracids with ant-like shields, and the curious larval 
Membracid resembling an ant carrying a leaf), wasps, 
Longicorn Coleoptera, all belong to this division, which 
includes a number of our own beetles belonging to the 
genera Clivina, Dyschirius, Miscodera, Stilicus, Notoxus, 
and Anthicus. 
The beetle Clerus formicarius has also been considered 
to be an ant-mimic, in which case it would therefore come 
under this heading. I, however, consider it to be a 
Mutilla-mimic.* 
2. Mimicry of ants by other Arthropods which do not 
* See Donisthorpe, ‘‘ Cases of Protective Resemblance, Mimicry, 
etc., in the British Coleoptera,” Trans. Ent. Soc., London, 1901, 
376. 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1921.—PaARTS III, IV. (JAN.’22) 
