THE THEORY OF MIMICRY 151 



Further, supposing a bird, mantis, or other enemy were 

 to notice one ol these unprotected mimics, the chances 

 are ten to one that such foe Avould have had no previous 

 experience of the protected form. Even if it had had 

 such experience, it would seize the mimic. This I am 

 convinced of from my o\^ti observati(m, for time after 

 time I have offered mantides or chameleons, insects (such 

 as aculeate hymenoptera, nauseous' Pentatomid?e, Coc- 

 cinellidse, etc.), which were certainly very much pro- 

 tected ; yet they were seized at once on nearly every occa- 

 sion, and in some cases the hymeno^Jtera were devoured. 

 Those who believe and maintain that resemblance to pro- 

 tected forms is also of service to unprotected insects 

 would doubtless assert that our large black Asilid is pro- 

 tected from Mantides by its wonderful resemblance to a 

 Sphex. I don't for a moment believe that it is. Only the 

 other day I offered a large green mantis, that I havo been 

 keeping for many weeks, a big black female Eumenid 

 wasp, and at the same time I placed in the jar four but 

 terflies — two xlcraeas, one C . floieUa and one J. clelia. 

 The wasp was seized first, and totally devoured except 

 for one wing; the two Acraeas (calclarent and noliara- 

 halali) went next, and the other two butterflies were left 

 untouched, though I kept them in the jar for some days 

 without offering the mantis any other food'' 



In response to my enquiry asking for instances of 

 birds preying on butterflies, Mr. Harold Millar, Curator 

 of the Durban Zoological Gardens, has kindly provided 

 me with the following personal observations. Mr. Millar 

 has from his boyhood (for some 10 years) been an assi- 

 duous collector and keen observer of both birds and 

 insects. 



" In November 1915, when collecting at Pigeon Valley, 

 Berea, I came across large numbers of Lacnoptera ayresii, 

 most of them newly hatched and some of them only just 

 able to fly. I Avas busy for about two hours catching 

 specimens and during that time, on one accasion I ob- 

 served a S.A.P.F. {Terpsiphone perspicillata) dart past 



me, at about 15 feet distant, and capture a L. ayresii 



