Mimicry 283 



Mimicry, — Batesian or Pseudaposematic, Miillei'ian or 



Synajyosematic. 



Tlie existence of superficial resemblances between animals of 

 various degrees of affinity must have been observed for hundreds 

 of years. Among the early examples, the best known to me have 

 been found in the manuscript note-books and collections of W. J. 

 Burchell, the great traveller in Africa (1810 — 15) and Brazil (1825 — 

 30). The most interesting of his records on this subject are brought 

 together in the following paragraphs. 



Conspicuous among well-defended insects are the dark steely or 

 iridescent greenish blue fossorial wasps or sand-wasps, Sphex and 

 the allied genera. Many Longicorn beetles mimic these in colour, 

 slender shape of body and limbs, rapid movements, and the readiness 

 with which they take to flight. On Dec. 21, 1812, Burchell captured 

 one such beetle (Promeces vlridis) at Kosi Fountain on the journey 

 fi'om the source of the Kuruman River to Klaarwater. It is correctly 

 placed among the Longicorns in his catalogue, but opposite to its 

 number is the comment " Sphex ! totus purpureus." 



In our own country the black-and-yellow colouring of many 

 stinging insects, especially the ordinary wasps, affords perhaps the 

 commonest model for mimicry. It is reproduced with more or less 

 accuracy on moths, flies and beetles. Among the latter it is again a 

 Longicorn which offers one of the best-known, although by no means 

 one of the most perfect, examples. The appearance of the well- 

 known "wasp-beetle" (Clytiis arietis) in the living state is sufficiently 

 suggestive to prevent the great majority of people from touching it. 

 In JBurchell's Brazilian collection there is a nearly allied species 

 {Neoclytus cnrvatus) which appears to be somewhat less wasp-like 

 than the British beetle. The specimen bears the number "1188," 

 and the date March 27, 1827, when Burchell was collecting in the 

 neighbourhood of San Paulo. Turning to the corresponding number 

 in the Brazilian note-book we find this record : " It runs rapidly 

 like an ichneumon or wasp, of which it has the appearance." 



The formidable, well-defended ants are as freely mimicked by 

 other insects as the sand- wasps, ordinary wasps and bees. Thus 

 on February 17, 1901, Guy A. K. Marshall captured, near Salisbury, 

 Mashonaland, three similar species of ants (Hymenoptera) with a bug 

 (Hemiptera) and a Locustid (Orthoptera), the two latter niiniicking 

 the former. All the insects, seven in number, were caught on a single 

 plant, a small bushy vetch \ 



Tliis is an interesting recent example from South Africa, and 

 large numbers of others might be added — the observations of many 



1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1902, p. 56o, plate xix. figs. 53 — 59. 



