240 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



insects belonging to the most diverse families and 

 orders ; the members of such a group bear, as it were, 

 the trade-mark of unpalatability usually a particular 

 type of coloration. The resemblances between the 

 different members of such a group need not be par- 

 ticularly close ; it suffices if they show to their enemies 

 the brand which those enemies have learnt to asso- 

 ciate with nauseous properties. Such a group is known 

 as a Miillerian group, but if we include in it Batesian 

 mimics, it is known as a convergent group ; con- 

 vergent because the members of it are regarded as 

 converging on a central dominant species, or set of allied 

 species, whose unpalatability has been more or less 

 clearly demonstrated. The Lycidce form the centre of 

 a large convergent group ; they are very abundant, 

 their integuments are extremely tough though flexible, 

 and they have been proved by experiment to be 

 unpalatable. All the species exhibit a great similarity 

 of colouring the anterior part of the body, as seen 

 from above, is red or orange, the posterior part is 

 black ; the red colouring may be very extensive, cover- 

 ing nearly all the body, or it may be restricted to a 

 very small anterior part. But in casting one's eye over 

 a collection of Lycidce from any part of the world the 

 arrangement of colours is always as here described. 

 It is obvious that such a uniform and widely distributed 

 colour-pattern must be very familiar to all insectivor- 

 ous animals, and when other insects, which are not 

 Lycidce, display a similar type of colouring, it requires 

 no great stretch of the imagination to suppose that 

 they enjoy an immunity secured to them by their 

 " trade-mark." Wherever Lycidce occur there are found 

 other insects coloured similarly ; they are found alike 



