Ir PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 65 
that we have scarcely any observations of the habits and 
appearance when alive of the hundreds of species of these 
groups in various parts of the world, or how far they are 
accompanied by Hymenoptera, which they specifically re- 
semble. There are many species in India (like those figured 
by Professor Westwood in his Orientul Entomology) which 
have the hind legs very broad and densely hairy, so as 
exactly to imitate the brush-legged bees (Scopulipedes) which 
abound in the same country. In this case we have more 
than mere resemblance of colour, for that which is an import- 
ant functional structure in the one group is imitated in 
another whose habits render it perfectly useless. 
Mimicry among Beetles 
It may fairly be expected that if these imitations of one 
creature by another really serve as a protection to weak and 
decaying species, instances of the same kind will be found 
among other groups than the Lepidoptera; and such is the case, 
although they are seldom so prominent and so easily recognised 
as those already pointed out as occurring in that order. A few 
very interesting examples may, however, be pointed out in most 
of the other orders of insects. The Coleoptera or beetles that 
imitate other Coleoptera of distinct groups are very numerous in 
tropical countries, and they generally follow the laws already 
laid down as regulating these phenomena. The insects which 
others imitate always have a special protection, which leads 
them to be avoided as dangerous or uneatable by small 
insectivorous animals; some have a disgusting taste (analogous 
to that of the Heliconide); others have such a hard and 
stony covering that they cannot be crushed or digested ; 
while a third set are very active, and armed with powerful 
jaws, as well as having some disagreeable secretion. Some 
species of Eumorphide and Hispide, small flat or hemispher- 
ical beetles which are exceedingly abundant, and have a dis- 
agreeable secretion, are imitated by others of the very 
distinct. group of Longicornes (of which our common musk- 
beetle may be taken as an example). The extraordinary 
little Cyclopeplus batesii belongs to the same sub-family of 
this group as the Onychocerus scorpio and O. concentricus, 
which have already been adduced as imitating with such 
F 
