in PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 67 



and sailors" (species of Malacoderms), thus confirming my 

 belief that they were a protected group, founded on the fact 

 of their being at once very abundant, of conspicuous colours, 

 and the objects of mimicry. 



There are a number of the larger tropical weevils which 

 have the elytra and the whole covering of the body so hard 

 as to be a great annoyance to the entomologist, because in 

 attempting to transfix them the points of his pins are con- 

 stantly turned. I have found it necessary in these cases to 

 drill a hole very carefully with the point of a sharp penknife 

 before attempting to insert a pin. Many of the fine long- 

 antennsed Anthribidse (an allied group) have to be treated in 

 the same way. We can easily understand that after small 

 birds have in vain attempted to eat these insects, they should 

 get to know them by sight, and ever after leave them alone, 

 and it will then be an advantage for other insects which are 

 comparatively soft and eatable to be mistaken for them. We 

 need not be surprised, therefore, to find that there are many 

 Longicorns which strikingly resemble the " hard beetles " of 

 their own district. In South Brazil, Acanthotritus dorsalis is 

 strikingly like a Curculio of the hard genus Heiliplus, and 

 Mr. Bates assures me that he found Gymnocerus cratoso- 

 moides (a Longicorn) on the same tree with a hard Crato- 

 somus (a weevil), which it exactly mimics. Again, the pretty 

 Longicorn, Phacellocera batesii, mimics one of the hard 

 Anthribidae of the genus Ptychoderes, having long slender 

 antennae. In the Moluccas we find Cacia anthriboides, a 

 small Longicorn which might be easily mistaken for a very 

 common species of Anthribidse found in the same districts ; 

 and the very rare Capnolymma stygium closely imitates the 

 common Mecocerus gazella, which abounded where it was 

 taken. Doliops curculionoides and other allied Longicorns 

 from the Philippine Islands most curiously resemble, both in 

 form and colouring, the brilliant Pachyrhynchi, Curculi- 

 onidse, which are almost peculiar to that group of islands. The 

 remaining family of Coleoptera most frequently imitated is 

 the Cicindelidse. The rare and curious Longicorn, Collyrodes 

 lacordairei, has exactly the form and colouring of the genus 

 Collyris, while an undescribed species of Heteromera is 

 exactly like a Therates, and was taken running on the trunks 



