1904.] PACKARD— ORIGIN OF MARKINGS OF ORGANISMS. 423 



should exhibit throughout its range that slow flight which is the 

 ' hall-mark ' of protection, which it certainly does not in Mashona- 

 land." We venture, however, to inquire whether climatic or local 

 causes are not sufficient to account for the ** reduction in size and 

 number of the spots in the fore wing, and the toning down of the 

 color from glaucous green to greenish-white, accompanied by the 

 marked change in its mode of flight." 



The changes in shape of wings and in color are probably due to 

 the action of light and temperature, and also to the difference in 

 amount and nature of the pigment. The cases of mimicry in but- 

 terflies of different groups, as well as in beetles, Hemiptera and other 

 orders, seem also due to the fact that there is in day-flying insects, 

 after all the variety of hues, a somewhat limited range of colors, 

 and also of patterns. I am inclined to believe that these factors 

 have so operated as to bring about the wonderful cases of conver- 

 gence exemplified by the instances of Batesian and MUllerian 

 mimicry. 



In a discussion on mimicry Mr. Elwes^ affirmed *' that there was 

 too much assumption about both the Batesian and Miillerian theo- 

 ries. In many supposed cases he doubted whether the so-called 

 models were protected by taste or smell. He referred to the extra- 

 ordinary superficial resemblance between two Pieridae found in the 

 high Andes of Bolivia and two others found at similar elevations in 

 Ladak, Asia, and was inclined to think that similar conditions of 

 environment produced similar efl"ects." 



Referring to Meldola's opinion that Euploea distantiis the mimic 

 of the somewhat abundant E. breweri, Mr. Distant' states that the 

 former is found both in the Malay Peninsula, Java and Sumatra, 

 whilst the latter is unknown to inhabit either Java or Sumatra, 

 though plentiful in the Malay Peninsula. " Consequently in Java 

 and Sumatra it mimics a species which does not exist nearer than 

 in the Malay Peninsula (that is, accepting this * mimicry hypo- 

 thesis')." 



Eisig has suggested, and Beddard and others have enlarged the 

 view, that those bright colors of animals which have hitherto been 

 regarded as of warning significance, are merely the substance or 

 secretions which confer the unpleasant taste, and that therefore 

 Wallace's older interpretation is unnecessary and in fact erroneous. 



1 Trans. Ent. Soc. London. 



"^Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., 5th ser., xi, 1883, p. 46. 



