MIMICRY RECORDED BY BURCHELL 117 



we find an observation of the mimetic resemblance 

 recorded by Burchell, and one which adds in the 

 most interesting manner to our knowledge of the 

 subject. A fragment, all that is now left, of 

 an Attid spider, captured on June 30, 1828, at 

 Goyaz, Brazil, bears the following note, in this 

 case on the specimen and not in the notebook : 

 ' Black . . . runs and seems like an ant with large 

 extended jaws.' My friend Mr. R. I. Pocock, 

 to whom I have submitted the specimen, tells me 

 that it is not one of the group of species hitherto 

 regarded as ant-like, and he adds, 'It is most 

 interesting that Burchell should have noticed the 

 resemblance to an ant in its movements. This 

 suggests that the perfect imitation in shape, as 

 well as in movement, seen in many species was 

 started in forms of an appropriate size and colour 

 by the mimicry of movement alone.' Up to the 

 present time Burchell is the only naturalist who 

 has observed an example which still exhibits this 

 ancestral stage in the evolution of mimetic like- 

 ness. 



Following the teachings of his day, Burchell 

 was driven to believe that it was part of the fixed 

 and inexorable scheme of things that these strange 

 superficial resemblances existed. Thus, when he 

 found other examples of Hemipterous mimics, 

 including one (Lutera macrophthalma) with * exactly 

 the manners of a Mantis ', he added the sentence, 

 * In the genus Cimex (Linn.) are to be found the 

 outward resemblances of insects of many other 



