NUPTIAL FLIGHT OF BUTTERFLIES 225 



th.at the part which the two sexes play is reversed, as is 

 their relative beauty," and Darwin goes on to say that 

 it may be supposed that the female takes the more active 

 part in the wooing. Since the middle of 1917 I have paid 

 particular attention to this point, and a large number 

 of pairs have been noted on the wing. In the Pierines,i 

 in all cases save one, the male has carried the female 

 as above described. So that it would appear that Darwin 

 was misinformed regarding Pierines, unless our English 

 species have different habits. My few observations of 

 Nymphalines show that the female carries the male. 

 This appears alsg to be the case with Lycaenidae. 

 Acraeines show no definite rule. In the case of Satyrines 

 the female seems to carry the male, and I have seen 

 Papilio dardanus form hippocoon carrying the male. 



We now come to the consideration of Mimicry, one of 

 the most fascinating subjects for study that insects can 

 provide, and one on which a large amount of work has 

 been done in recent years, from the point of view of the 

 Darwinian hypothesis, thanks to the influence of Professor 

 Poulton, of the Hope Department at Oxford. 



The study of mimicry was first taken up by Bates, 

 who, on the Amazons, found that a large number of 

 abundant butterflies were of the type previously alluded 

 to as aposematic, but that others, although superficially 

 resembling the former, belonged to groups anatomically 

 very different from them.^ 



He put forward the explanation that these latter lived 

 on the unsavoury reputations of their associates, or, in 

 other words, were Mimics of more distasteful models. 

 He found that whereas the models were abundant, easy 

 to catch, and avoided by birds, ^ the mimics were less 



1 Proc. Ent. Soc, 1918, p. clii. * Loc. cit. 



* Bearing on this ia the fact that Acrseinea and Danaines rarely show 

 evidence of attacks by birds which is so common among Lycaenidae, 

 unprotected Pierines or NymphaHnes, Satyrines, etc., in which a ^- 

 shaped piece is symmetrically cut out from both hind wings, showing 

 the nip of a bird's beak. 



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