Mimicry Among Animals 



There arc in the East small beetles of the 

 family Buprestidae which generally rest on the 



midrib of a leaf, and the naturalist often hesi- 

 tates before picking them off, so closely do they 

 resemble pieces of bird's dung. Kirby and 

 Spence mention the small beetle Onthophilus 

 sulcatus as being like the seed of an umbellifer- 

 ous plant; and another small weevil, which is 

 much persecuted by predatory beetles of the 

 genus Harpalus, is of the exact colour of loamy 

 soil, and was found to be particularly abundant 

 in loam pits. Mr. Bates mentions a small beetle 

 (Chlamys pilula) which was undistinguishable 

 by the eye from the dung of caterpillars, while 

 some of the Cassidas, from their hemispherical 

 forms and pearly gold colour, resemble glitter- 

 ing dew-drops upon the leaves. 



A number of our small brown and speckled 

 weevils at the approach of any object roll off 

 the leaf they are sitting on, at the same time- 

 drawing in their legs and antennae, which lit 

 so perfectly into cavities for their reception 

 that the insect becomes a mere oval brownish 

 lump, which it is hopeless to look for among 

 the similarly coloured little stones and earth 

 pellets among which it lies motionless. 



The distribution of colour in butterflies and 

 moths respectively is very instructive from this 

 point of view. The former have all their bril- 

 liant colouring on the upper surface of all four 

 wings, while the under surface is almost always 

 soberly coloured, and often very dark and <•!,- 

 83 



