Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

96 MIMICRY, A.ND OTHER PROTECTIVE
imitate other insects, and insects of other orders imitate beetles.
Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of
the family Necydalide, has been so named from its
resemblance to a small bee of the genus Melipona.
It is one of the most remarkable cases of mimicry,
since the beetle has the thorax and body densely hairy
like the bee, and the legs are tufted in a manner most
unusual in the order Coleoptera. Another Longicorn,
Odontocera odyneroides, has the abdomen banded with
yellow, and constricted at the base, and is altogether
so exactly like a small common wasp of the genus Odynerus, that Mr. Bates informs us he was afraid to take it
out of his net with his fingers for fear of being stung.
Had Mr. Bates's taste for insects been less omnivorous
than it was, the beetle's disguise might have saved it
from his pin, as it had no doubt often done from the
beak of hungry birds. A larger insect, Sphecomorpha
chalybea, is exactly like one of the large metallic blue
wasps, and like them has the abdomen connected with
the thorax by a pedicel, rendering the deception most
complete and striking. Many Eastern species of Longicorns of the genus Oberea, when on the wing exactly resemble Tenthredinidoe, and many of the small
species of Hesthesis run about on timber, and cannot
be distinguished from ants. There is one genus of
South American Longicorns that appears to mimic
the shielded bugs of the genus Scutellera. The Gymnocerous capucinus is one of these, and is very
like Pacllyotris fabricii, one of the Scnutelleridm, The