PROTECTIVE AND AGGRESSIVE MIMICRY 247 



examples of Mimicry, the resemblance to a hornet or 

 large wasp being so strong that the great majority of 

 people would shrink from them in fear. The insect 

 carries out the imitation to the end, and when seized 

 moves its body as if it were about to sting. 



Experimental proof that Protective Mimicry at first 

 deceives an enemy 



The protective effect of the resemblance was well 

 seen when I offered one of these moths (S. bembeci- 

 formis) to Lacerta muratis. The lizard was evidently 

 highly suspicious, and yet afraid. It examined the 

 insect very keenly from a distance, approached cau - 

 tiously, and touched it with its tongue. The effect of 

 this investigation was evidently reassuring, as we 

 might expect ; for the soft scaly body of the moth is 

 very different from the hard polished surface of a 

 wasp or hornet. And yet the lizard seized the moth 

 with the greatest care, by the head and thorax, and 

 began to thoroughly crush these parts, behaving ex- 

 actly as it would have done with a wasp or bee. The 

 texture, and perhaps the taste, of the insect, however, 

 soon revealed the deception, and the lizard then treated 

 the moth as unscrupulously as any other harmless 

 insect. A few days afterwards I offered another moth 

 of the same kind to the same lizard ; but the lesson 

 had been learnt, and the insect was seized without 



