Sept., 1892 colours and coloration in animals. 
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author, it is doubtful how far this wonderful departure from the 
usual appearance of the class to which the former belongs is 
of use to it, for he thinks that the chief enemies of such small 
pelagic creatures—whales and fish—would, when in schools 
and shoals respectively, gobble up what came first, without 
stopping to inquire too minutely what was there. In both of 
these instances, Mr. Beddard’s restrictions apply to those 
enemies which are much larger than the creatures concerned: 
in the case of the beetles, the mimicry would apparently be 
superfluous ; in that of a medusa and ampliipod, useless. But 
would not enemies more on a par in size with the beetles and 
ampliipods be affected by the resemblances ? Thirdly, there 
is a very remarkable instance of apparently perfect mimicry 
quoted from Professor Semper. That naturalist found in the 
Balearic Islands an annelid of the genus Myxicola, which, 
although really of very different structure, yet externally 
exactly resembles the polypes of the coral Cladocera caspitosci , 
among which it is often found embedded. On further 
investigation, the Professor found that the annelid also 
lived among sponges, rocks, sand, etc., objects, in fact, to 
which it had not the least resemblance. Hence, he came 
to the conclusion that the resemblance of the worm to 
the coral is purely accidental. Mr. Beddara seems to agree 
with this, but again, we ask, is it not likely that the worm 
does obtain benefit from its resemblance to the coral, for 
enemies will suspect it of being able to eject stinging-cells, 
and that whether it is embedded in a mass of corals, sponges, 
or sand ? 
An often quoted case of resemblance, which presents 
difficulties to our author, is the apparent mimicry 
of Humble Bees and Wasps by certain flies of the genus 
Volucella ; the resemblance is very striking, and is 
generally explained as enabling the flies to enter the hives, 
where they lay their eggs. Now bees are known to be so 
jealous as to prevent even members of their own kind, 
belonging to other hives, from entering their dwellings. 
Is it likely, then, that they are deceived by the flies ? Here, 
again, the question of insect-vision crops up. But the 
Volucellce certainly do lay their eggs in the hives, not only of 
bees, but also of wasps, which are said both to be much more 
intelligent than their relatives and also to feed on flies. Mr. 
Beddard throws out a suggestion that wasps and bees may, 
like ants, have a fancy for keeping pets, a theory which would 
explain the matter. 
Cases of so-called mimicry are commonest by far among 
insects; they are uncommon among birds and reptiles, and 
rare among mammals. Why this is so, it is difficult to see, 
