xxxvill Proceedings of the South African Philosophical Society. 
arranged in longitudinal bands or patterns. It may in truth be: 
said of all the terricolous South African Tenebrionide that, with 
the exception of the Molurid@ and species living under stones, in 
the imago state they all have a more or less distinct terrenous. 
covering. 
In Eurychora this pulverulence has become almost lanuginose, by 
means of which the insect is so well disguised that his gait has been 
affected, and it is now a very slow-moving insect, trusting evidently 
to its disguise to be taken for what he is not. 
Most of the ground weevils, which are extremely numerous in 
South Africa, are wonderfully imitative of their surroundings, and 
often the scales of which the patterns consist, are so arranged that if 
the animal feigns death it is hard for the entomologist to find it again. 
Plant weevils are also very imitative, but some are so conspicuous 
owing to their colouring that it is difficult to believe that the 
colouration is not intended as a warning: Polycleis equestris, P. 
prasina, Hypomeces barbicauda, Sciobius wahlbergi, are cases in 
point. Many of these ground weevils have an extremely hard. 
covering—one that must task an insectivorous animal’s ability to: 
the utmost, yet the ground spiders of the genus Harpactira pierce. 
their armour. 
Species of the genus Larinus, which is very numerously repre- 
sented in South Africa, have a yellowish, whitish, or mottled 
pulverulent coating; they exude a new pulverulence if the old 
one is rubbed off, so as to maintain the protective colouration. 
The assimilation of Anthribide, which are xylophagous, to the 
colour of the wood or bark of trees is almost marvellous, and this 
assimilation 1s shared by many of the Lamad Longicorns which are 
also living on dead, sometimes on healthy trees. Paristernia analis 
and Callidiwm longicolle seem to me to be mimickers, but of which 
species it is not yet clear. 
In the CoLEoPTERA it cannot be said that brilliancy is always con- 
nected merely with warning colours. Yet whole families, ike the 
Buprestid@, are simply rutilant, and are only equalled by the livery 
of some Cetonne. The Buprestidae, however, when at rest, do not 
show in nature the brilliancy of integument which characterises 
them so much in the Cabinet. All the South African species, even 
the most brilliant, have a fine whitish, or shghtly yellowish, pulveru- 
lent coating which subdues the sheen. They are all extremely alert, 
and drop on the ground, mostly on their back, and simulate death 
at the least appearance of danger, or they take speedily to flight. 
Were these bright colours warning colours it is most probable that 
they would trust to them more, and not try to escape seizure in the 
