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Show 258 DARWINISM CI!Al', found at Ohontales. The pretty longicorn, Oallia alhicornis, closely rescm Llcs two species of malacodcrms (Sili ch<dybeipennis and Oolyphus signaticollis), all being small hoot] •s with red head and thorax and bright blue elytra, and all three have been found at Panama. Many other species of Uallia also resemble other malacoderms; and the longicorn genus Lyciclolu. has been named from its rcsemhlan <.:e to various species of the Lycidre, one of the pecics here figmcd (Lycidola bclti) being a good mimic of Oalopteron corrugaLttlll and of several other allied species, aJl being of about tlw :-;amc size and found a.t Chon tales. In these cases, aml in most others, the longicorn beetles have lost the general form all(l aspect of their allies to take on the appearance of a di "tinct tribe. Some other groups of beetle , as the Ela.tcrid <~! alHl Eucnemid::e, also deceptively mimic malacoclerms. \Vasps and bees arc often clo ·ely imitated hy i m;P('ts of other orders. Many longicorn beetles in the tropi<.:s exa<.:tly mimic wasps, bees, or a.nts. Iu Borneo a large bh<.:k wm;p, whose wings have a broad white patch ncar the apex Plygnimia aviculus), is closely imitated by a hetcromcrons l1ectle (Colohorhombus fasciatipennis), which, contrary to the general habit of beetles, keeps its wings expanded in order to :-;how the white patch on their apex, the wing-coverts being redttccd to small oval scales, as shown in tho figure. This is il mo. t remarkable instance of mimicry, because the beetle has ha<l to acquire so many characters which are unknown among it:-. allies (except in another species from Java)-the expanded wing , the white hand on them, and the oval scale -like elytm.l Another remarkable case has been noted by Mr. N e\·ille Goodman, in Egypt, where a common hornet (Vespa orientali .) is exactly imitated in colour, size, shape, attitude "bt·n a.t rest, and mode of flight, by a beetle of the genu. LapJ1 ri<1.:l The tiger- beetles (Cicindelidre) are al ·o the sulJjed:-; of mimicry by more harmless insects. In the Malay lslall<l. I found a heteromerous beetle which exactly r escmlllccl a Therates, both being found running on the trnnk~ of t ree . A lol}gicorn (Collyrodes Lacordairei) mimics Oollyris, :wothcr genus of the same family; while in the I hilippinc lf'bnds 1 T1-ctns. Ent. Soc., 1885, p. 369. ~ Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soo., vol. iii. part ii., 1877. lX WARNING COLORA~riON AND MIMICRY 259 there is a cricket (Oondylodeira tricondyloides), which so closely resembles a tiger- beetle of the genus Tricondyla FIG. 26.-Mygnimia aviculus (Wasp). Coloborhomhus fasciatipennis (Uec tl c). that the experienced entomologist, Professor Westwood, at first placed it in his cabinet among those beetles. |
