PSYCHE 
VOL. XLVII MARCH, 1940 
No. 1 
OBSERVATIONS IN CUBA ON INSECT MIMICRY 
AND WARNING COLORATION. 
By C. T. Parsons 
Biological Laboratories, Harvard University 
The following cage experiments on mimicry and warning 
coloration were conducted at the instance of an article by 
P. J. Darlington, Jr . 1 This paper is intended to supplement 
rather than to repeat Dr. Darlington's extensive remarks 
on the environment in which the mimicry occurs. These 
few observations, incidental to other work, are fragmen- 
tary. Yet opportunity to gather such information is so rare 
that the following notes are thought worthy of record. 
The writer is greatly indebted to Dr. Thomas Barbour 
who made possible the stay in Cuba under a Harvard Fel- 
lowship of the Atkins Institution at Soledad, near Cien- 
fuegos. Professor C. T. Brues very kindly took charge of 
the special photography involved. Also to Dr. Darlington 
and Doris H. Blake for advice and assistance in identifying 
the insects the writer is under obligation. 
Dr. Darlington described an example of mimicry, occur- 
ring at Soledad, in which a lizard, Anolis sagrei (D. & B.) 
is the chief predator. In his experiments Darlington ob- 
served that the Anolis refused beetles of several different 
families. Apparently these were mimics of two very similar 
species of inedible Lycid beetles, Thonalmus suavis (J. — D.) 
and T. aulicus (J. — D.). 
An examination of the plate of photographs should eluci- 
date the descriptions that follow. 
X P. J. Darlington, Jr., 1938, Experiments on mimicry in Cuba with 
suggestions for future study. Trans. R. ent. Soc. London, 87 : 681-695. 
