( 510 ) 



that in geographical representatives, wliich live nniler the iuflnence of different 

 biolosrical factors, one or the other character can remain nuaffected. When this 

 takes place indejieuclently iu several forms which represent each other, the preserved 

 character of the common ancestor renders those forms more similar to each other 

 than to the other representatives which live nnder conditions that have modified 

 the respective character, while the actual blood-relationship is the same between 

 all the forms. On the other hand, it conld also be thonght possible that, when a 

 species gradually sjjreads over a larger area and deveIoj)s into a number of repre- 

 sentative forms, now and again a character acquired by a new form A occurring in 

 locality M will remain unaltered in form B living in locality ^V which is a 

 descendant of .1 ; in this case the presence of the same character in forms ^l and B 

 would imjdy that the forms are closer connected with one another than li is with 

 any other ally except its own descendants. However, if we admit this case to occur, 

 we should maintain that an acquired character is inheritable when the conditions 

 which have brought it into appearance are absent, and we thus should decide 

 offhand tlie much-contested question whether acquired characters are or are not 

 inheritable. Notwithstanding we believe that ultimately the inheritance of acquired 

 characters will be proved, the contest clearly shows that it is in every case a mere 

 assumption, if we conclude from the presence of the same character or similar 

 characters in two representative forms that one of the two is tlie parent, the other 

 the daughter form. 



If divergency is the effect of transmuting factors, could not similarity also be 

 the outcome of biological factors in different districts ? Many facts, for instance 

 the similarity of desert forms, point to an affirmative answer; but we have an almost 

 certain proof furnished us by tlie experiments * of Standfuss, who succeeded in 

 breeding under artificial conditions from ordinary European Lepidoptera such forms 

 as come close to their geographical representatives. As Standfuss was able to pro- 

 duce from our common Vanessa antiopa specimens similar to tlie Central American 

 form (thomsoui), there can no longer be any doubt that a similarity iu a cliaracter of 

 the representative forms of a species can come about in widely separated countries, 

 and will come about when the conditions are favourable. 



Taking into account all the points here adduced, it seems to ns obvious that all 

 the evidence points to one end, namely, that the similarities and dissimilarities 

 exhibited liy representative forms are not an expression of closer uv less close phylo- 

 genetic connection, but an expression of the similar or dissimilar effect of the action 

 of the different and similar biological factors on the organs in every locality. If we 

 apply this conclusion, which is a necessary consequence of the assumption that the 

 theory of evolution is correct, to the facts observed in the Papilios, there is no 

 longer any contradiction in the characters of the wing and the characters of the 

 organs of copulation. That Papilio ariateus anticrates from India .agrees with the 

 Pajiuan representative in the colour, but disagrees with it entirely in the harpe, 

 that the Chinese /'. c/oantkus is in the harpe more similar to the Suraatran than to 

 the North Indian form, that P. mrpedon teredon from Ceylon and South India 

 agrees best in the wings and genital armature with the forms occurring on the lesser 

 Sunda Islands and disagrees widely with the form inhabiting all the interjacent 

 countries, that the Nicobar form of /'. (ujamemnon is in the jiresence of a series of 

 red spots on the underside of the hindwing similar to the representative from the 



• St.nndfiiss, Hanilhiichfiir SchwetterlingniammJer 189(>, 



