286 Colour and the Struggle for Life 



In fact the whole combination, except perhaps one Phytophagous, one 

 Coprid and the Longicorn beetles, and the fly, fall under the hypothesis 

 of Miiller and not under that of Bates. And it is very doubtful 

 whether these exceptions will be sustained: indeed the suspicion of 

 unpalatability already besets the Longicorns and is always on the 

 heels, — I should say the hind tarsi — of a Phytophagous beetle. 



This most remarkable group which illustrates so well the 

 problem of mimicry and the alternative hypotheses proposed for its 

 solution, was, as I have said, first described in 1902. Among the 

 most perfect of the mimetic resemblances in it is that between the 

 Longicorn beetle, Amphidesmus analis, and the Lycidae. It was with 

 the utmost astonishment and pleasure that I found this very re- 

 semblance had almost certainly been observed by Burchell. A 

 specimen of the Amphidesmus exists in his collection and it bears 

 "651." Turning to the same number in the African Catalogue we 

 find that the beetle is correctly placed among the Longicorns, that it 

 was captured at Uitenhage on Nov. 18, 1813, and that it was found 

 associated with Lycid beetles in flowers ("consocians cum Lycis 

 78 — 87 i n floribus"). Looking up Nos. 78 — 87 in the collection and 

 catalogue, three species of Lycidae are found, all captured on Nov. 18, 

 1813, at Uitenhage. Burchell recognised the wide difference in affinity, 

 shown by the distance between the respective numbers ; for his 

 catalogue is arranged to represent relationships. He observed, what 

 students of mimicry are only just beginning to note and record, the 

 coincidence between model and mimic in time and space and in 

 habits. We are justified in concluding that he observed the close 

 superficial likeness although he does not in this case expressly allude 

 to it. 



One of the most interesting among the early observations of super- 

 ficial resemblance between forms remote in the scale of classification 

 was made by Darwin himself, as described in the following passage 

 from his letter to Henslow, written from Monte Video, Aug. 15, 1832 : 

 "Amongst the lower animals nothing has so much interested me as 

 finding two species of elegantly coloured true Planaria inhabiting 

 the dewy forest ! The false relation they bear to snails is the most 

 extraordinary thing of the kind I have ever seen 1 ." 



Many years later, in 1867, he wrote to Fritz Miiller suggesting 

 that the resemblance of a soberly coloured British Planarian to a 

 slug might be due to mimicry 2 . 



The most interesting copy of Bates's classical memoir on Mimicry 3 , 

 read before the Linnean Society in 1861, is that given by him to the 



1 More Letters, i. p. 9. 2 Life and Letters, in. p. 71. 



3 "Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley." Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. 

 xxin. 1862, p. 495. 



