Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/488

458 and in the sand, between marine plants, or the tubes of other worms"; and, whenever he examined it closely, "it was exactly of the size and colour of the polyps of Cladocora cæspitosa." As Prof. Semper concludes, "Mimicry, it is plain, is out of the question; the resemblance between the two creatures is simply and wholly accidental." The second illustration is from the pen of Mr. Trimen, so well known for his entomological advocacy of the claims of mimicry, and who describes a most remarkable instance which came to his notice in connection with the pupa of Papilio lyæus. He received from a correspondent a small box containing what he took at the first glance for three ordinary green chrysalids of that butterfly. Only one of these objects, however, was a veritable chrysalis, the two others being the seedcapsules of a plant stated to be a species of Hakea. "The tint of green, the general lateral outline (especially the bulging ventral convexity of the wing-covers), the projections of the bifid head, the attenuated form of the posterior abdomen and anal extremity, and even the slight ferruginous tips of the projections of the head, are all reproduced in the seed-capsules to a very deceptive extent." The chrysalis was found "in the neighbourhood of a hedge of the Hakea, and if this plant had been a native of South Africa it can scarcely be questioned that a strong case of mimicry would readily have been admitted by observers. As a recent introduction from Australia, however, it is clear that Hakea cannot have been the model for the pupa of a Papilio of a specially African group." Mr. Belt, so well known for his excellent observations in support of mimicry, gives us another warning against guessing conclusions. "Ant-like Spiders have been noticed throughout Tropical America, and also in Africa. The use that the deceptive resemblance is to them has been explained to be the facility it affords them for approaching Ants, on which they prey. I am convinced that this explanation is incorrect so far as the Central American species are concerned. Ants, and especially the stinging species, are, so far as my experience goes, not preyed upon by any other insects. No disguise need be adopted to approach them, as they are so bold that they are more likely to attack the Spider than a Spider them. Neither have