in certain South African Lamellicorns. 93 
Braconid (Zombrus, sp.). The Gametis resembles the 
Haplolycus the other way 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.* Gametis balteata may now be 
added to the wonderful synaposematic Lycoid group 
figured in Plate XIII of Mr. Marshali’s paper. 
HOopuiin&. 
We met with thirteen species of Hopliinx 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 tibize are gro- 
tesquely disproportioned to the animals; moreover both 
femora and tibie 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 dent- 
ipes, and Burmeister another forcipatus. 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. Péringuey, 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. Lond., 1902, Part II, pp. 340, 344, 380. 
