( Ivii ) 



of colours on our fingers, as far as the Coleoptera are 

 concerned and the groups which associate themselves around 

 them : perhaps the commonest of all is the association of 

 yellow and black which we have before spoken of : it is plain 

 and unmistakable, and is possessed by a very large number 

 of the powerful and dangerous Aculeate Hymenoptera : and 

 therefore we should expect to find it imitated by a large 

 number of species, belonging to other orders, as indeed is the 

 case : one striking instance of a South African group has 

 been mentioned, but the same is true of other regions : the 

 Rev. H. S. Gorham, who has worked out the Lampyridse, etc., 

 for the " Biologia Centrali- Americana," informs me that the 

 particular Mexican pattern for the Telephoridse, Lampyrida?, 

 Lycidse, Hispidse, and some Longicorns is black with the 

 shoulder and a lateral stripe yellow. 



Occasionally most of the members of a genus may be 

 coloured as mimics, while one species may strike out a 

 conspicuous scheme of warning coloration for itself; this is 

 the case with the Longicorn Eurycephalus cardinalis, which 

 is coloured in three broad transverse bands of red, white and 

 black; another species of the same genus imitates Lycidre : this 

 instance from Sandakan, Borneo, has been noticed by Professor 

 Poulton, and is worthy of further consideration. 



Under Mullerian mimicry fall those cases in which beetles 

 imitate insects of other orders, and are themselves in turn 

 imitated by beetles belonging to other families : the Cleridx, 

 for instance, resemble Mutillidx, and also large Ants, and 

 they are themselves in turn mimicked by species of 

 Longicornia. 



The two groups of Coleoptera in which mimicking species 

 are most often found are the Longicornia and the Heteromera, 

 and next to these come the Curculionidse ; the Heteromera 

 appear to be one of the most abnormal groups in the Animal 

 Kingdom : they have a peculiar facies of their own, which is 

 hard to define, but sufficient, as a rule, to at once distinguish 

 them ; and they imitate, to a greater or less extent, almost all 

 the other Coleopterous families : they are not, however, given 

 to imitate other orders of insects : the Longicornia largely 

 imitate bees and wasps, but with the exception of the 



PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., V. 1901, P 



