Cases of Protective Bescmblancc, Mimicry, etc. 361 



and good instances of warning colours, as the Lycina, to 

 which they belong, are much mimicked by other groups. 



Zampyris noctiluca, L. 



Wallace considers that the light in the glow-worm is a 

 warning colour, as the male, eggs and larvae are all 

 luminous as well as the female, though the latter is by far 

 the most luminous. (Darwinism, p. 267.) Poulton on 

 the other hand thinks that the light is a sexual attraction, 

 and that the males are assisted in their search by the light 

 of the females. In the former case they would come under 

 the head of Aposematic colours, and in the latter of 

 Epigamic colours. As Professor Poulton suggests, it 

 would be well to find out, when in the life of the £ the 

 light is brightest and most constantly displayed, whether 

 in the virgin state, or before all copulation is over. The 

 females are probably distasteful, for they as well as the 

 larvae are coloured yellow and black, looking rather like 

 a large lady-bird larva : furthermore they lie about by 

 dozens in the day-time in sand-pits, etc., without appear- 

 ing to make any attempt to hide themselves. The males 

 on the other hand bury themselves in the earth during 

 the day, as I frequently noticed with specimens I was 

 experimenting with at Chiddingfold. 



TELEPHOKID.E. 



The Telephoridte as before stated are inedible. Mr. 

 Jenner Weir found that they were refused by small birds. 

 They are conspicuous red and black insects, and most of 

 them are common, and no doubt good examples of warning 

 colours. They walk and fly about without any attempt at 

 concealment, sitting together in numbers on the flowers of 

 umbelliferae, etc. They are mimicked by many other 

 species of Coleoptera. In the Lepidoptera one of the 

 footmen, ricbricollis, is very like a large Telephorus. When 

 I first saw it in the New Forest, I thought for the moment 

 that it was a grand new species of that genus. 



Mcdachius lenats, L. 



This beetle, with its large vivid red patches on the elytra, 

 is evidently a good case of warning colours. It is found 

 on flowers and herbage in meadows, etc. 



