Chap. XIV.] ANALOGICAL RESEMBLANCES. 225 



such kinds ■ mocking other insects, though they are 

 mocked; insects cannot easily escape by flight from 

 the larger animals which prey on them; there- 

 fore, speaking metaphorically, they are reduced, 

 like most weak creatures, to trickery and dissimula- 

 tion. 



It should be observed that the process of imitation 

 probably never commenced between forms widely dis- 

 similar in colour. But starting with species already 

 somewhat like each other, the closest resemblance, if 

 beneficial, could readily be gained by the above means; 

 and if the imitated form was subsequently and gradu- 

 ally modified through any agency, the imitating form 

 would be led along the same track, and thus be altered 

 to almost any extent, so that it might ultimately assume 

 an appearance or colouring wholly unlike that of the 

 other members of the family to which it belonged. 

 There is, however, some difi&culty on this head, for it 

 is necessary to suppose in some eases that ancient mem- 

 bers belonging to several distinct groups, before they 

 had diverged to their present extent, accidentally re- 

 sembled a member of another and protected group in 

 a sufficient degree to afEord some slight protection; this 

 having given the basis for the subsequent acquisition of 

 the most perfect resemblance. 



On the Nature of the Affinities connecting Organic 

 Beings. — As the modified descendants of dominant spe- 

 cies, belonging to the larger genera, tend to inherit 

 the advantages which made the groups to which they 

 belong large and their parents dominant, they are al- 

 most sure to spread widely, and to seize on more and 

 more places in the economy of nature. The larger and 

 more dominant groups within each class thus tend to 



