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MEMBRA CIDJE. 
we have representations of either large ants, or ants carrying their cocoons, or 
of them, some copying Coccinellidae and perhaps some Cercopiuse. 
In protective mimicry the weaker prey seems to succeed in cheating the instincts 
of their more powerful foes, but if we were transported to the plane of an insect’s life 
and senses, our marvels in this respect might be less than those we now think 
them to be. 
Much has been assumed as to what is tasteful and what is distasteful to various 
animals. Food offered to animals in confinement is accepted by them under 
abnormal conditions; they are artificially fed, and so do not offer a satisfactory test. 
Again, we know but little of the digestive powers and predilections of such creatures. 
The author has known some dipterous larvae to live for several days in a weak 
aqueous solution of silver nitrate (lunar caustic), and under this unusual condition 
their living tissues refused to be absorbed, or dyed as might have been expected by the 
subsequent action of light. 
Dilute hydrocyanic acid is said to have very little effect on the living frog; whilst 
a little warm water speedily kills it. The maggot of the blow-fty revels in decom¬ 
posing matter, which would prove most deadly to the higher organisations. 
As to protective mimicry we ought to consider in what manner it is capable of 
efficiently acting. 
Some exotic insects closely imitate the forms of species which seem to be absent 
from the countries of the mimickers. Such facts indicate some law or cause quite 
apart from protective mimicry, and would fall under the indefinite term coincidence, 
or accident, which of course is not an explanation of the fact of imitation. 
If variation be regarded as a universal law of change, we may wonder that we can 
record so few examples of its interference. So regarded, a reversion to an ancient 
type might be described, not so much mimicry, as a return to the characters of 
resemblance, or to the habit of its progenitor. 
These examples of likeness would become more frequent provided that the number 
of individuals born did not decrease or practically die out. 
It has been shown by Dr. A. R. Wallace that diversity of sex is one prime cause 
of variation, and that differences once begun are accentuated by selection. He also 
argues that a-sexual animals have a tendency to extinction. 
Opinion now tends to the belief that individuals and species do not so strongly 
show the peculiarities and instincts of their immediate parents as those of their 
distant ancestors, that is, they inherit from the ancient family stock. These views 
are advocated by Francis Galton, Frederic Merrifield, and more recently by Prof. F. 
Poulton. 
Reasoning by analogy is hazardous and may be fallacious. Because the human 
