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There are, however, some groups of insects, constituting what appear to be the remains of the ancient population of the equatorial parts of the Australian region, which are still almost entirely confined to it. Such are the interesting sub-family of Longicorn coleoptera Tmesisternitae; one of the best-marked genera of Buprestidae Cyphogastra; and the beautiful weevils forming the genus Eupholus.
The doctor arranged the matting-screen so as to admit more air, and bustled towards the door but stopped short on hearing a buzzing sound at the open window, went back on tiptoe, and cleverly captured a large insect. "A splendid longicorn," he said, fishing a pill-box from his pocket, and carefully imprisoning his captive.
Not one forgets to take this precaution. The two Capricorns have, in short, the same system of closing their cells. In each case we find the same chemical composition, the same formation, like the cup of an acorn. Dimensions apart, the two structures are identical. But no other genus of Longicorn, so far as I am aware, practises this craft.
Beneath its ragged bark, which I lift in wide strips, swarms a population of larvæ all belonging to Cerambyx cerdo. There are big larvæ and little larvæ; moreover, they are accompanied by nymphs. These details tell us of three years of larval existence, a duration of life frequent in the Longicorn series.
We will now adduce a few cases in which beetles imitate other insects, and insects of other orders imitate beetles. Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of the family Necydalidæ, 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.
Another fine longicorn, figured in Plate 25, Deliathis nivea, looks as if made of pure white porcelain spotted with black. It is a rare beetle, one or two specimens each season being generally all that are taken. It is usually found on the leaves of young trees from twelve to twenty feet from the ground.
On one myrtle-like bush, with small white flowers, there were dozens of a small Longicorn new to me, which, when flying, looked like black wasps. It was very pleasant to sit in the cool shade, and listen to, and watch, the birds. There was here no fear of dangerous animals, the only annoyance being stinging ants or biting sand-flies, neither of which were at this place very numerous.
On the fallen branches and logs I obtained many longicorn beetles; the woodcutters brought me many more, and from this valley were obtained some of the rarest and finest species in my collection. On the myrtle-like flowers of some of the shrubs, large green cockchafers were to be found during the dry season, and a bright green rosechafer was also common.
H.W. Bates has enumerated 242 of these in a paper "On the Longicorn Coleoptera of Chontales, Nicaragua," published in the "Transactions of the Entomological Society" for 1872. In an interesting summary of the results he gives the following analysis of the range of the species: Peculiar to Chontales: 133 species. Common to Chontales and Mexico: 38 species.
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