March, '03] entomological news. 93 



reasoning as to w. ether an insect is edible or not), and that therein hes 

 its chief utility, though it may prove useful incidentally in other cases . . 

 We see that the insectivorous groups have different tastes, and within 

 each group we must expect to find individual species adapted to feed 

 largely on insects which are as a rule rejected by other members of the 

 same group." 



In opposition to the assumption of Haase, evidence is brought forward 

 that " Lepidoptera with warning colours [are] specially liable to the 

 attacks of parasitic insects." 



From numerous experiments with Kestrels, three results may be men- 

 tioned : inability to seize a large Buprestid beetle, apparently on account 

 of its slipperiness, due to its hard shiny integument and torpedo-liice 

 shape ;* the rejection, after trial, of the evil-smelling Corseid bug, Anoploc- 

 nemis curvipes (both Coraeid and Buprestid are greedily eaten by 

 baboons, good ex imples, therefore, of " the difference in value of the same 

 defence with different enemies ") ; and the continual refusal of a brightly 

 colored grasshopper, which, however, was always eaten "with relish when 

 it had been dipped in meal to obscure its colours." This last case is 

 held to be "almost certainly the result of unpleasant experiences with 

 conspicuously-marked insects, of which a particular instance was afforded 

 when the larvae of L\imnas\ chrysippus was offered. Such association 

 of impressions brought about by very imperfect resemblances are of great 

 importance in helping us to understand the origin of mimicry, both 

 Batesian and Miillerian, in slight accidental resemblances of a very rough 

 and imperfect kind. It also warns us not to regard as far-fetched or ab- 

 surd those imperfect likenesses which may well be the early stages of 

 incipient mimicry." One would like to know to what extent the meal in 

 which the grasshoppers were dipped determined the " relish." 



Tables listing insects found in birds' stomachs are held to "afford 

 wonderfully strong support ,to the existing theories which explain crypticf 

 colouring and instinct as the defence of forms which are eagerly sought 

 for as food by numerous enemies, and an aposematic appearance and 

 mode of life as the defence of specially protected forms only attacked 

 under the stress of hunger or by comparatively few specially adapted foes. " 



Mr. Marshall has some interesting observations and suggestions in the 

 section dealing with the attacks of birds on Lepidoptera — a very vital 

 point in the theory of mimicry. The winter forms of the Teracoli are 

 fairly swift fliers, dodging well; if thoroughly frightened, "they settle 



* Prof. L. Cu^not made a similar suggestion as to the protective value 

 cf the shape and smoothness of the surface of Coccinellidae. Bull. Soc. 

 Zool. France, 1898. 



t Cryptic colors, those " which conceal an animal by rendering it diffi- 

 cult to distinguish from some part of its vegetable or mineral environ- 

 ment (in the great majority of cases)." Poulton, The Colours of Animals, 

 table facing, p. 338. 



