PROTECTIVE MIMICRY. 195 



out of their wings; sometimes the lacerations were symmetrical 

 on both wings thus indicating that the insect had been seized 

 when at rest with the wings folded together over the back. 

 Mr. Poulton has admitted that " there is, unfortunately, too 

 little direct experimental proof of the unpalatability of the 

 specially protected groups which are the chief models of 

 Mimicry." 



V 



The observations of Fritz Miiller must be set against those 

 of Bates, Wallace, and Belt ; they do not, of course, prove that 

 the species is eaten by birds, but they do prove that the 

 insect is occasionally pursued by birds. It is suggested by 

 Mr. Wallace that the injuries were produced by the attacks 

 of young and inexperienced fledglings ; this must obviously 

 for the present remain a suggestion. 



In the same situations as those in which the Heliconias are 

 found there also occur, more rarely, specimens of butterflies 

 minutely resembling the Heliconias, but belonging to a per- 

 fectly distinct family the Pieridas. They belong to the two 

 genera Leptalis and E/(t:'rj>:', consisting of numerous species, 

 each of which shows a striking likeness to some one particular 

 ^pecies of IlcUconia. This likeness is not a mark of near 

 affinity ; * it affects no important character, but only the 

 shape and coloration of the wings. 



Now the Pieridaa, as a group, differ in these last-mentioned 

 characters from the Heliconida? ; there is not, excepting in the 

 genera LeptaH* and Euterpe, this remarkable superficial imita- 

 tion of the Heliconid type. These facts, therefore, evidently 

 require some explanation. 



Mr. Bates suggested that the resemblance had been brought 

 about for the protection of the Pierids. It is obvious that 

 if a species which is perfectly eatable, and therefore greatly 



This has, however, been denied. 



