266 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



Little observation has been made on the living 

 appearances of the hundreds of species* of these 

 groups in foreign countries, or how far their habits 

 coincide with those of the Hymenoptera that they 

 specifically resemble. But wherever these analogies 

 occur, their meaning may be inferred to be the same. 

 When we see a moth that has donned the livery 

 of a bee or a wasp, we seem compelled to conclude 

 that the assumption is intended to protect the 

 defenceless form, by deceiving insectivorous animals, 

 even the sharpest, which persecute the moth, but 

 which regard suspiciously, or deal with caution, or 

 at once avoid the hymenopterous creature whose 

 sting renders it troublesome and dangerous. Certain 

 species of the clear-wing group have opaque wings, 

 closely resembling those of species of Coleoptera 

 inhabiting the same district. When at rest the wings 

 are closed over the body, like the elytra of beetles. 



No order is so frequently mimicked as the 

 Hymenoptera. A number of the Diptera or two- 

 winged flies resemble bees and wasps, and doubtless 

 derive benefit from the freedom of the imitated insects 

 from attack. In the tropics of South America 

 certain large flies mimic stinging Sphegidae of that 

 country, and a fly of the genus Asilus corresponds in 

 the colour, both of its wings and its abdomen, with 

 the handsome bee Euglossa dimidiata, the mocker 

 and the mocked being found in the same localities. 

 A striking resemblance exists between the well- 

 known hornet Vespa orientalis and a species of the 

 dipterous genus Laphria. 1 The mimicked hornet 

 1 Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. vol. iii. Feb. 1877. 



