ix WARNING COLORATION AXD MIMICRY 257 



like the same extent among the edible species. The explana- 

 tion of the various phenomena of resemblance and mimicry, 

 presented by the distasteful butterflies, may now be considered 

 tolerably complete. 



Mimicry in other Orders of Insects. 



A very brief sketch of these phenomena will be given, 

 chiefly to show that the same principle prevails throughout 

 nature, and that, wherever a rather extensive group is 

 protected, either by distastefulness or offensive weapons, 

 there are usually some species of edible and inoffensive 

 groups that gain protection by imitating them. It has been 

 already stated that the Telephoridae, Lampyridse, and other 

 families of soft -winged beetles, are distasteful; and as they 

 abound in all parts of the world, and especially in the tropics, 

 it is not surprising that insects of many other groups should 

 imitate them. This is especially the case with the longicorn 

 beetles, which are much persecuted by insectivorous birds ; and 

 everywhere in tropical regions some of these are to be found 

 so completely disguised as to be mistaken for species of the 

 protected groups. Numbers of these imitations have been 

 already recorded by Mr. Bates and myself, but I will here 

 refer to a few others. 



In the recently published volumes on the Longicorn and 

 Malacoderm beetles of Central America x there are numbers of 

 beautifully coloured figures of the new species ; and on looking 

 over them we are struck by the curious resemblance of some 

 of the Longicorns to species of the Malacoderm group. In 

 some cases we discover perfect mimics, and on turning to the 

 descriptions we always find these pairs to come from the 

 same locality. Thus the Otheostethus melanurus, one of the 

 Prionidse, imitates the malacoderm, Lucidota discolor, in 

 form, peculiar coloration, and size, and both are found at 

 Chontales in Nicaragua, the species mimicked having, how- 

 ever, as is usual, a wider range. The curious and very rare 

 little longicorn, Tethlimmena aliena, quite unlike its nearest 

 allies in the same country, is an exact copy on a somewhat 

 smaller scale of a malacoderm, Lygistopterus amabilis, both 



1 Godman and Salvia's Biologia Centrali-Americana, Insecta, Coleoptera, 

 vol. iii. part ii., and vol. v. 



