Mimicry 



insect more like a wasp than it would be were its wing- 

 cases of normal dimensions. The likeness does not end 

 here, though more careful observation is necessary to 

 detect the next point of resemblance. The wasp has 

 four wings, and its hind and fore wings are fastened 

 together by a series of minute hooks, invisible to the 

 naked eye. Beetles have only two wings, but the wasp- 

 beetle has each wing lobed at its hinder margin ; thus its 

 two wings appear extraordinarily like the four wings of 

 the wasp. 



Examples of mimetic insects could be quoted at length ; 

 some of them have been known, or, more correctly speaking, 

 have been confused with other insects, since Biblical times. 

 The myth that animal carcases generate bees was men- 

 tioned in the story of Samson, in the book of Judges; it 

 has held sway in nearly every country the world over, and 

 is perpetuated as the trade mark of a well-known brand 

 of golden syrup, in the form of a drawing of a lion from 

 whose anatomy a number of bees are issuing. Now bees 

 do not feed upon animal matter. How can the myth be 

 explained and how has it arisen ? The fact of the matter 

 is that there is a certain fly, belonging to the family of 

 hover-flies, those perfect aeronauts that may be seen 

 hovering, with wings vibrating so rapidly that the human 

 eye is quite incapable of following their movements, the 

 while they are on the look-out for their prey, the succulent 

 green-fly. 



These hover-flies so closely resemble the honey-bee 

 that they have been named " drone-flies." The drone-fly 

 breeds in carcases or in stagnant water, so that the 

 almost universal and absolutely time-worn myth does not 

 require much explanation after all. Another family of 

 flies mimics bumble-bees. The robber or buccaneer flies, 

 as a family, are strikingly mimetic. These flies are 

 veritable hawks of the insect world, pursuing and capturing 

 their prey on the wing, but retiring to a nearby resting- 

 place to devour their victims. Those of one species 



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