in PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 65 



that we have scarcely any observations of the habits and 

 appearance when alive of the hundreds of species of these 

 groups in various parts of the world, or how far they are 

 accompanied by Hymenoptera, which they specifically re- 

 semble. There are many species in India (like those figured 

 by Professor Westwood in his Oriental Entomology) which 

 have the hind legs very broad and densely hairy, so as 

 exactly to imitate the brush-legged bees (Scopulipedes) which 

 abound in the same country. In this case we have more 

 than mere resemblance of colour, for that which is an import- 

 ant functional structure in the one group is imitated in 

 another whose habits render it perfectly useless. 



Mimicry among Beetles 



It may fairly be expected that if these imitations of one 

 creature by another really serve as a protection to weak and 

 decaying species, instances of the same kind will be found 

 among other groups than the Lepidoptera; and such is the case, 

 although they are seldom so prominent and so easily recognised 

 as those already pointed out as occurring in that order. A few 

 very interesting examples may, however, be pointed out in most 

 of the other orders of insects. The Coleoptera or beetles that 

 imitate other Coleoptera of distinct groups are very numerous in 

 tropical countries, and they generally follow the laws already 

 laid down as regulating these phenomena. The insects which 

 others imitate always have a special protection, which leads 

 them to be avoided as dangerous or uneatable by small 

 insectivorous animals ; some have a disgusting taste (analogous 

 to that of the Heliconidse) ; others have such a hard and 

 stony covering that they cannot be crushed or digested; 

 while a third set are very active, and armed with powerful 

 jaws, as well as having some disagreeable secretion. Some 

 species of Eumorphidse and Hispidse, small flat or hemispher- 

 ical beetles which are exceedingly abundant, and have a dis- 

 agreeable secretion, are imitated by others of the very 

 distinct group of Longicornes (of which our common musk- 

 beetle may be taken as an example). The extraordinary 

 little Cyclopeplus batesii belongs to the same sub-family of 

 this group as the Onychocerus scorpio and O. concentricus, 

 which have already been adduced as imitating with such 

 F 



