120 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, '13 



that many more observations of a like nature will be made in 

 the near future, and that we shall finally be able to advance 

 Bates' Theory to the dignity of a law. 



It may be found that in our present day and generation 

 arthemis and the other species of Limenitis are no longer used 

 as food. This may not have been so in a past age. The forma- 

 tion of the Limenitis mimics may have taken place under con- 

 ditions quite different from those of to-day. We may easily 

 imagine that the progenitors of the present-day species were 

 of one general form, possibly slow-flying and with other habits 

 which made them an easy prey to birds. One branch may have 

 developed protection by adopting a protective coloration, while 

 the other found protection in a swift flight, quick, alert move- 

 ments, and the adoption of wooded areas for their habitat. 

 Argue as we may, the fact remains that the mimics exist and, 

 so far, no reasonable explanation has been offered except that 

 advanced by Darwin, Wallace and their followers the sur- 

 vival of the fittest by natural selection. 



In closing I wish to express my very great appreciation of 

 Mr. F. Grinnell, Jr.'s, kindness in lending me all of the publi- 

 cations outlined in the following list of references : 



(1) Transactions, Entomological Society of London. 1908. Parts 

 III and IV. Mimetic North American species of the genus Limenitis 

 (s. 1.) and their models. By Edward B. Poulton, D.Se., M.A., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., etc. 



(2) Transactions, Entomological Society of London. 1902. Part 

 III. Nov. Five Years' Observations and Experiments (1896-1901) 

 on the Bionomics of South African Insects, with plates of illustrations. 

 By Guy A. K. Marshall, F.Z.S. 



(3) Transactions, Entomological Society of London. 1908. Parts 

 III and IV. Bionomic Notes on Butterflies. By G. B. Longstaff, M.A., 

 M.D., F.E.S. 



(4) Journal of the Acad. of Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia. Vol. XV. 

 Second Series, March 21, 1912. Mimicry in Boreal American Rhopalo- 

 cera. Henry Skinner, M.D., Sc.D. 



(5) Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Vol. II, No. 

 4, Dec., 1909. Mimicry in the Butterflies of North America. Prof. E. 



B. Poulton. 



(6) Spolia Zeylandica, Ceylon, Vol. V, Part XVIII, April, 1908. 

 Mimicry in Insect Life as Exemplified by Ceylon Insects. By E. E. 

 Green, F.E.S. 



(7) The Condor, a Magazine of Western Ornithology, Vol. XIII, 

 No. 6, Nov.-Dec., 1911. The relation of birds to an insect outbreak in 

 Northern California during the spring and summer of 1911. By Harold 



C. Bryant. 



