17 



chri/sippiiH, a brovvn insect with a black apical patch crossed by a 

 band of white. This butterfly is mimicked by other butterflies 

 belonginfT to many difterent groups, and among others by the 

 female of hypolimnax inixippKs, a Nymphaline butterfly related to 

 our Fritillaries and Vanessas. The male Hi/polininas inisippns is 

 black with a bluish iridescence, and is made conspicuous by the 

 presence of large blotches of dead white. The male is thus 

 completely dissimilar from the female in aspect, and shows no trace 

 of the resemblance to Danaida chri/sippns which is so noteworthy in 

 the latter sex. In other species of Hyfiolimnas the male is equally 

 non-mimetic, while the female presents a close resemblance to 

 species of the distasteful genus Enploea. 



In several of the instances that have come before us, you may 

 have noticed that I have avoided making statements about the 

 females as a whole, speaking rather of " a form of the female," or 

 " some of the females," thus implying that not all of the females of 

 a given species will fall under the description that is being given. 

 Thus, in the case of Ixias evippe, some of the females are furnished 

 with an apical orange patch, and some not. In all cases, however, 

 the female ecippe is a duller and less conspicuous insect than the 

 male. It can hardly have escaped the notice of any observer 

 interested in butterflies that the females generally have a greater 

 tendency to variation than the males ; and this tendency 

 occasionally undergoes a very striking development. Not only may 

 we get two or more forms of the female of a given species differing 

 in comparatively small particulars such as the presence or absence 

 of an orange-coloured patch at the apex, but we may find the females 

 of one and the same species falling apart into separate groups whir-h 

 are absolutely different in appearance ; so different, indeed, that no 

 one in the absence of direct proof would believe them to be of the 

 same species. Let us take for example the very remarkable Papilio 

 daidaniis, one of the swallowtail butterflies of South Africa, and not 

 very far removed from our own British swallowtail. This butterfly 

 has three or four different forms of female, all quite unlike each 

 other, but each of them bearing a close resemblance to a butterfly 

 belonging to an entirely different family. The brown form with a 

 black and white apical patch mimics Danaida chn/sippns ; the black 

 and white form is a copy of Amanris doiiiinicanns, and the dark 

 form with white spots on the forewing and an ochreous band on the 

 hindwing bears a close resemblance to Amanris echeria. 



In the instance of Papilio dardanus all three models are 

 Danaines, and are quite remote in affinity from the Swallowtail 

 butterflies that imitate them. But there are cases, almost equally 

 striking, where the female is similarly polymorphic, each form 

 resembling a butterfly, not of another family, but belonging to the 

 same group, viz., the Pierinae, as the mimic itself. A good 

 example of this state of things is afforded by Leuceronia aryia, a 

 butterfly found under various slightly different forms over the 



