﻿REDUVIIDAE 



557 



ants, and that the abdomen is extremely ant-like in form. This 

 resemblance is quite parallel with that of an Orthopteron to an 

 ant (sec Vol. V. p. 323); the Insect is by no means uncommon, 

 and it is strange that this curious case 

 of resemblance should hitherto have 

 escaped notice. The bug runs about on 

 plants and flowers, and is frequently in ^ fflk ^ 



company with ants, but we do not know SsLIkEiJt 



whether it preys on them. Not the 



Fig. 270. — Ptilocnemus sidnicus. 

 Australia. (After Mayr.) 



least remarkable of the 

 facts connected with 

 this Insect is that the 

 resemblance is confined 

 to the earlier instars ; 

 the adult bug not being- 

 like an ant. We may 

 here mention that there 

 are numerous bugs that 

 closely resemble ants, 

 and that on the whole 

 there is reason to be- 

 lieve that the resem- 

 bling forms are actually 

 associated during life, 

 though we really know- 

 very little as to this last 

 point. 



The little sub-family 

 Holoptilides, with 

 twenty-five species, but 

 Fig. 271.— Myiodocha tipulina. China. widely distributed ill 



the Eastern hemisphere, is remarkable on account of the feathered 



