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summer (S ichneumoniformis), I was often puzzled by a fly which 

 ■was exactly like the inoth I was after, and on more than one occa- 

 sion I caught the fly instead of the moth. Mr. Bates, in his 

 *' Naturalist on the Amazon" says, that he several times shot by 

 mistake a humming bird hawk moth instead of a bird. This moth 

 Macroglofisa Titan, we have a representative of the family in England 

 called Macroglossa stellatanim, is somewhat smaller than the hum- 

 ming bird ; but its manner of flying and way of poising itself as it 

 sips the honey from a flower, is precisely the same as tlie action of 

 the humming bird. Mr Bates says that the resemblance has 

 attracted the attention of the natives, all of whom, even the whites, 

 firmly believe that one is transmutable into the other. Many 

 tropical butterflies mimic others of allied species which are inedible. 

 A remarkable instance of this is given by Mr. Poulton in his work 

 already referred to. It is a swallow tail ; but the females are 

 without tails on the hind wings, and present a totally different 

 appearance from the male. The female occurs in three different 

 varieties, each of which mimics a different species of Danias (an 

 inedible butterfly) prevalent in its district. It is noticeable that 

 females are far more liable to assume this method of defence than 

 the males. As a rule they fly slower, and are more liable to attack 

 when in the act of depositing their eggs. 



Among other orders of insects there are many examples of 

 mimicry ; but I will cite but one or two. To again quote Mr. 

 Poulton: " One of the most interesting cases I have yet met with was 

 found by my friend, Mr. W. L. Sclater, in tropical America. In 

 this part of the world leaf cutting ants are only too well known ^ 

 being most destructive of the introduced trees. They are seen in 

 countless numbers passing along their well worn roads to the 

 formicarium, and every homeward bound ant carries a piece of leaf, 

 about the size of a sixpence, held vertically in its jaws, Mr. 

 Sclater found an insect of an entirely different kind, and, I believe, 

 belonging to a different order, which mimicked the ant, together 

 with its leafy burden. The piece of leaf was imitated by a thin, 

 flat expansion, and the resemblance was so striking that Mr. 

 Sclater's servant, who was a keen observer, actually believed that 

 he was looking at an ant carrying its piece of leaf." Several spiders 

 imitate ants ; and among the grasshopper order many examples of 

 protective resemblance will be found, notably those of " leaf insects" 

 and " walking-stick insects." These latter hold their limbs irre- 

 gularly, so that the resemblance to a dead branch with lateral 

 twigs, is rendered all the more perfect. To conclude my examples, 

 in Java there is a beetle which imitates closely a large black wasp. 

 Contrary to the usual habit of beetles, it keeps its wings expanded 

 in order to show the white patch on their apex. 



