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orders, in a simple scheme of aposematic or warning coloration 

 (Mullerian Mimicry). 



1. Beetles as a rule are protected by their integument, but 

 in some species the outer covering is quite soft, and in some 

 it is much harder than in others and is a very evident pro- 

 tection : this is specially the case with several of the large 

 sombre-coloured South African Curculionidse. I have made 

 experiments with dry and hollow specimens of a comparatively 

 small species of Brachycerus, or an allied genus, and found that 

 when laid upon a board with another board above they would 

 bear a weight of more than a quarter of a cwt. without giving 

 or breaking : on a carpet or on turf they would bear much more : 

 many of these beetles offer almost as much resistance to a pin 

 as a walnut-shell, and they would be quite safe from the 

 attacks of ordinary birds ; in this connection it is worth 

 noticing that Lord Avebury in his work on "Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps" (p. 16), speaking of the ant Myrmecina Latreillii, says 

 that " their skin is very hard, and they roll themselves into a 

 ball, not defending themselves even if their nest is invaded : 

 to prevent which they make the entrances small, and often 

 station at each a worker, who uses her head to stop the way " : 

 it has been surmised that the enormous and very hard head 

 of the large workers of the Leaf-cutting Ant CEcodoma 

 cephalotes has some protective meaning for the individual 

 and for the nest in general. Several of the ants-nest beetles, 

 especially those belonging to the Histeridse, appear to be 

 protected by their hard covering and smooth surface from any 

 attacks on the part of the ants they live with. 



2. We need not discuss at length the question of the assimil- 

 ation of colour to environment, as we find it running through 

 the whole animal kingdom : it is however especially marked 

 in large numbers of Coleoptera, especially in those that live on 

 or about wood and bark. 



Several Carabidse (e. g. Nehria complanata) and many of the 

 Cicindelidse afford excellent instances of protective resemblance, 

 but it is among the Longicornia and the Rhynchophora that 

 we find the best instances : whole groups of these closely 

 resemble the bark of the trees on which they live, or the 



