98 ' MIMICRY, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE 
black-banded wings and the abdomen tipped with rich 
orange, so as exactly to resemble the fine bee Euglossa 
dimidiata, and both are found in the same. parts of 
South America. We have also in our own country spe- 
cies of Bombylius which are almost exactly like bees. 
In these cases the end gained by the mimicry is no 
doubt freedom from attack, but it has sometimes an 
altogether different purpose. There are a number of 
parasitic flies whose larvae feed upon the larvee of bees, 
such as the British genus Volucella and many of 
the tropical Bombylii, and most of these are exactly 
like the particular species of bee they prey upon, so 
that they can enter their nests unsuspected to deposit 
their eggs. There are also bees that mimic bees. The 
cuckoo bees of the genus Nomada are parasitic on the 
Andrenidx, and they resemble either wasps or species 
of Andrena ; and the parasitic humble-bees of the genus 
Apathus almost exactly resemble the species of humble- 
bees in whose nests they are reared. Mr. Bates informs 
us that he found numbers of these “ cuckoo’ bees and 
flies on the Amazon, which all wore the livery of 
working bees peculiar to the same country. _ 
There is a genus of small spiders in the tropics which 
feed on ants, and they are exactly like ants themselves, 
which no doubt gives them more opportunity of seizing 
their prey; and Mr. Bates found on the Amazon a 
species of Mantis which exactly resembled the white 
ants, which it fed upon, as well as several species of | 
erickets (Scaphura), which resembled in a wonderful 
manner different sand-wasps of large size, which are 
