THBX3RIKS OF MIMICRY AS ILLUSTRATED HY AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 115 



vergent groups occur, not only in the same place, but at the same 

 time. Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall has kindly done this work, sending 

 mo several groups captured at one place in a single day. At Malvern, 

 near Durban, Natal, on March 6th, and again on March 30th, 1897, 

 ht) captured Limnax r/iri/sippiis and several species of Anara, with the 

 black-and-white tip to the wing. On March 27th he captured, in the 

 same locality, the black-and-white Planemas [Acracinuc) /'. eschn'a and 

 P. nijanice, together with an abundant black-and-white Ncptis {N. 

 (ujatha) and a closely similar day-flying moth, Xi/ctuiicris apicalin. It 

 is very probable that these latter forms do not mimic in the Batesian 

 sense, but are themselves specially defended and fall into a MilUerian 

 group. Mr. Marshall did not, on that day, capture any of the black- 

 and-white Danainai'. Mr. D. Chaplin, however, on April 5th, 189G, 

 obtained at Berea, a suburb of Durban, Aincmris ochlea and Plancma 

 ai/anicc, as well as lAinncoi chri/sippHs, with two species of convergent 

 Acrnoas {A. enceihm and A. pctraca). Mr. F. D. Godman and Mr. 0. 

 Salvin have kindly presented these specimens to the Hope Collection 

 at Oxford. 



I think it must be admitted that there is now strong evidence for 

 the same convergence between specially protected abundant African 

 species from the same locality as that which is already well known in 

 the tropical East and in tropical America. Various degrees of perfec- 

 tion exist, and it is in every way probable that the resemblance of 

 some members to the standard of their group is not of long standing, 

 and will improve in the future. 



Other facts in the colouring of African Lepidoptera also support 

 this interpretation. Thus certain Lijcaenidac of the genera Prntila 

 and Alania are known to fly very slowly, and in the case of the latter 

 to feign death when captured — characteristics of unpalatable forms. 

 While they thus differ in habits from LycaBiiids generally, they also 

 dift'er entirely in their appearance, which rather suggests that of an 

 Acraea. The same is true of moths belonging to many groups, and 

 perhaps of the abundant butterflies of the genus Bi/ldia. Similarly 

 the large group of Lepidoptera which has for its centre the abundant 

 day-flying moths of the genus Aleth, appears to be moulded upon the 

 colouring and pattern of Limnas chnjsipjnis, differing only in an even 

 greater conspicuousness, due to the white spots or rings on the black 

 body, and the highly developed black-and-white border to the hind- 

 wing. It is probable that the common species of the genus J'hi/i/iacdra, 

 which form some of the most conspicuous members of this group, are 

 themselves specially protected. To take one more example, certain 

 species of the Pierine genus Mi/lot/iris are rendered specially con- 

 spicuous by the interrupted black border to the hind-wings, the inter- 

 ruptions extending along the hind margin of the fore-wings. A white 

 butterfly with such a border becomes an extremely conspicuous object, 

 and this appearance of Mi/lothris is mimicked, more or less perfectly, 

 by species from a number of Pierine genera, such as ycp/iemnia, 

 Jlrlrnois, ( 'allosimc, etc. This is usually explained as an example of 

 true Batesian mimicry, but it is, perhaps, more probable that the 

 Pioinac are very largely a specially protected group, many of the 

 genera of which, so to speak, combine their advertisements, and thus 

 share between them the loss of life which must necessarily ensue 

 during the education of each generation of their enemies. 



