co eee [vil 
hand, it seems impossible to take it for anything but what 
it is. When it settles it curves the ends of its antenne out 
and keeps them quivering just like an Ichneumon. There is 
a metallic sheen on the elytra just as you get on dark-winged 
flies, and the white spots on them seem to suggest an annulated 
body underneath the wings; yet the resemblance is not in 
the details of the markings, but in the whole appearance of 
the insect.” 
The PresipEnt remarked that the appearance of the beetles 
entirely justified Mr. Andrewes’ statement. No one, looking 
at the specimens in the cabinet, could imagine that during 
life they would suggest so strongly the appearance of a 
Hymenopterous insect. The allied species G. iresine (Pascoe), 
from Borneo, was described by Mr. R. W. C. Shelford, M.A., 
as a good mimic, and in this case the resemblance is 
tolerably obvious even in the dead specimen. Mr. Shelford 
says of it: “The middle third of the elytra is brown, shading 
anteriorly into blue, posteriorly into greyish-white ; the model 
is a small blue ylctoma, and when the wings are laid back 
the resemblance between the two species is striking; the blue 
anterior third of the beetle’s elytra corresponds to the posterior 
part of the Hylotoma’s thorax, the brown portion to the 
abdomen with the superposed wings, the greyish posterior 
third to the tips of the wings of the model, which project 
beyond the end of the abdomen.” (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1902, 
vol. ii, p. 240.) When the whole genus Glenea is examined, 
the marked conspicuousness of some of the species suggests 
that the mimetic resemblance displayed by others is Miillerian 
or Synaposematic, rather than Batesian or Pseudaposematic. 
The essential importance of a study of the living insect in 
its normal environment, for the true interpretation of many 
examples of mimicry, could hardly receive a better illustration 
than by Mr. Andrewes’ specimen accompanied by the notes 
upon it. Many years ago (in 1889) the speaker had shown 
a painting of the common English beetle, Clytus arietis, to Dr. 
Alfred R. Wallace, and suggested that it was a good example 
of mimetic resemblance to a wasp. Dr. Wallace was at first 
inclined to doubt this interpretation, but when asked whether 
he had ever seen the beetle move he recalled the habits of 
