OCR Text |
Show 1902.] SPIDERS FROM BORNEO AND SINGAPORE. 247 (fig. 5). The model may be a male or female, as in such smallsized specimens the male does not bear the long elytral processes characteristic of large or medium-sized varieties, the elytra are merely produced into short points ; these short points are mimicked by the Longicorn very exactly. Stegenus dactylon (Pasc.) of the subfamily Agniince is also a fair mimic of a large-sized Diurus sylvanus (compare figs. 8 & 4 on Plate XX.). As in jE goprepis insignis, the body is blackish-brown streaked with a pale ochreous pubescence (fig. 8 a ) ; the basal two-thirds of the antennae are clothed with a dense black plumosity; the remaining joints are ochreous and pale in colour. Elelea concinna (Pasc.), one of the Mesosinm, also mimics in the same manner a small Brenthid, Arrhenodes sp., as previously noted by Wallace, who remarks that it carried its antennae " straight and close together, appearing like a Brenthid." Another of the Mesosinoe-Zelotci spathomelina (described by Mr. Gahan in Appendix I. to this memoir)-mimics an Endo-mychid, a species of Spathomeles near turritus (Gerst.) (compare figs. 57 & 56, Plate X X III.). The model, which is not represented in the British Museum collections, is pitchy-black with two reddish spots on each elytron ; springing from each elytron is a stout spine directed somewhat forwards, forming a very efficient defence against the attacks of enemies. It is not improbable, moreover, that this beetle is still further protected by some distasteful properties, which, at any rate, are possessed by the species of the genus Eumorphus of the same family, an assemblage of black or purplish insects with conspicuous yellow spots. All of these possess a very pungent though not altogether disagreeable odour, whilst many exude a yellowish acid fluid when seized. The mimic of the Spathomeles is colon red in much the same way as its model: on each elytron there is a mamilliform prominence, from which springs a pointed tuft of delicate hairs, which is curved slightly forwards. These tufts so closely resemble the formidable spines of the model that a near inspection with lens and finger is necessary to reveal the deception. Another Endomychid beetle, Amphisternus mucro-natus (Gerst.), is also a probable model of the same species of Longicorn. The aberrant Trachystola granulosa (Pasc.), which was placed provisionally in the subfamily Dorcadionince, with its deeply punctured and granulate elytra, presents the general appearance of a large black Curculionid, such as Sipalus granulatus (Fab.), without, however, exhibiting any very highly modified mimetic characteristics, as in the species previously discussed. Daphisia pulchella (Pasc.) is a highly conspicuous little beetle of the subfamily Phytceciince, and is almost indistinguishable from two species of Clerid of the genus Callimerus (compare fig. 55 with figs. 53 & 54 on Plate XXIII.). [The resemblance of the Oleridae as a group to widely different Coleoptera and to insects of other orders is well known. Looking |