Ill 
PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 
6 ? 
and sailors” (species of Malacoderms), thus confirming my 
belief that they were a protected group, founded on the fact 
of their being at once very abundant, of conspicuous colours, 
and the objects of mimicry. 
There are a number of the larger tropical weevils which 
have the elytra and the whole covering of the body so hard 
as to be a great annoyance to the entomologist, because in 
attempting to transfix them the points of his pins are con- 
stantly turned. I have found it necessary in these cases to 
drill a hole very carefully with the point of a sharp penknife 
before attempting to insert a pin. Many of the fine long- 
antenneed Anthribidse (an allied group) have to be treated in 
the same way. We can easily understand that after small 
birds have in vain attempted to eat these insects, they should 
get to know them by sight, and ever after leave them alone, 
and it will then be an advantage for other insects which are 
comparatively soft and eatable to be mistaken for them. We 
need not be surprised, therefore, to find that there are many 
Longicorns which strikingly resemble the “ hard beetles ” of 
their own district. In South Brazil, Acanthotritus dorsalis is 
strikingly like a Curculio of the hard genus Heiliplus, and 
Mr. Bates assures me that he found G-ymnocerus cratoso- 
moides (a Longicorn) on the same tree with a hard Crato- 
somus (a weevil), which it exactly mimics. Again, the pretty 
Longicorn, Phacellocera batesii, mimics one of the hard 
Anthribidse of the genus Ptychoderes, having long slender 
antennse. In the Moluccas we find Cacia anthriboides, a 
small Longicorn which might be easily mistaken for a very 
common species of Anthribidse found in the same districts ; 
and the very rare Capnolymma stygium closely imitates the 
common Mecocerus gazella, which abounded where it was 
taken. Doliops curculionoides and other allied Longicorns 
from the Philippine Islands most curiously resemble, both in 
form and colouring, the brilliant Pachyrhynchi, — Curculi- 
onidse, which are almost peculiar to that group of islands. The 
remaining family of Coleoptera most frequently imitated is 
the Cicindelidae. The rare and curious Longicorn, Collyrodes 
laeordairei, has exactly the form and colouring of the genus 
Collyris, while an undescribed species of Heteromera is 
exactly like a Therates, and was taken running on the trunks 
