BODILY CHARACTERISTICS CONSPICUOUSNESS 315 



a Bornean beetle (Coloborkombus fasciatipennis], which is ex- 

 tremely like a large black wasp (Mygnimia aviculus] from the 

 same region. Beetles usually keep their transparent hind-wings 

 folded up except during flight, and covered over by the hard 

 fore-wings, which constitute wing-cases (elytra). But here the 

 latter are reduced to inconspicuous scales, while the former are 

 kept expanded, in which condition they closely resemble in form 

 and colouring the wings of the wasp. 



Tiger- Beetles are avoided on account of their ferocity, many 

 Weevils because they are hard and indigestible, while other species 

 of Coleoptera are protected by stink-glands. All these protected 

 groups are mimicked by their weaker brethren. 



Mimicking Grasshoppers and Crickets. The cockroach and 

 grasshopper order (Orthoptera) is rich in illustrations of mimicry. 

 Semper (in Animal Life), for example, cites two Philippine 

 Grasshoppers, one of which (Scepastus pachyrhyncoides) pre- 

 sents a deceptive resemblance to a hard weevil (Apocyrtus), 

 while the other is a respectable imitation (Pkoraspis) of an un- 

 palatable lady-bird beetle (Coccinella). A Cricket (Condylodeira 

 tricondyloides] from the same islands is wonderfully like a tiger- 

 beetle (species of Tricondyla) found in the same part of the world. 



Mimicking Orthoptera. Some of the Orthoptera when 

 alarmed display eye-like markings, reminding one of the cater- 

 pillars already described. In the Praying Mantis (Mantis re- 

 ligiosa) and other members of the same family such markings 

 are found on the inner sides of the thighs (femora) of the 

 fore-legs, which members are usually forwardly-directed, ready 

 to catch insect prey. An interesting new theory regarding such 

 markings is quoted by Annandale (in the paper already men- 

 tioned), who says: "I do not know that a function has ever 

 been assigned to marks situated in this position except by the 

 Russian naturalist Porschinsky. ... [He] has a theory that all 

 eye-like markings on insects represent glands, which may be 

 imagined to secrete a noxious fluid. He supposes that such 

 markings simulate the liquid which has issued forth, with the 

 blue sky or some other object reflected in it, and points out 

 that the display of such spots is sometimes accompanied by a 

 sound which might be taken to imitate liquid hissing out of 

 a narrow opening, such as the duct of a gland. Mantis religiosa 

 is one of his examples. He says that there is a large blue ' eye ', 



