372 Professor E. B. Poulton [March 5, 



Scottish Geographical Society, Royal — Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 



XXXI. No. 2. 8vo. 1915. 

 Selhorne Society — Selborne Magazine for Feb. 1915. 8vo. 



Smithsonian Institution — Archaeology of the Lower Mimbres Valley, New- 

 Mexico. (Miscellaneous Collection.) Vol. LXIII. No. 10. 8vo. 1914. 

 Socidtt^ (V Encouragement pour V Industrie Nationale — Bulletin pour Nov.-Dec. 



1914. Svo. 

 Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine — Proceedings, Vol. XII. No. 3. 



Svo. 1914. 

 Tohoku, Imperial University, Sendai, Japan— Science Reports, Vol. Ill, No. 6. 



Svo. 1914. 

 Tohoku Mathematical Journal, Vol. VI. Nos. 2, 3, Dec. 1914. Svo. 

 United Service Institution, Royal — Journal for Feb. 1915. Svo. 

 United States, Department of Agriculture — Journal of Agricultural Research, 



Vol. II. Nos. 5-6 ; Vol. III. Nos. 14, Aug. 1914-Jan. 1915. Svo. 

 Experiment Station Record, Vol. XXXI. Nos. 1-9, Aug.-Dec. 1914. Svo. 

 Western Aiistralia, Agent-General— Monthly Statistical Abstract for Oct. 



1914. 4to. 

 Zurich Naturforschenden Gessellschaft—\ iextelJAhTsschriit, 1914, Heft 3. Svo. 



1914. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 5, 1915. 



The Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M. P.C. D.C.L. 

 LL.D. F.R.S., in the Chair. 



Professor E. B. Poulton, M.A. LL.D. D.Sc. F.R.S. M.R.I. 



Mimicry and Butterflies. 



Superficial resemblances between distantly related butterflies had 

 been pointed out by Boisduval in 1836, long before Bates read 

 his classical paper on mimicry before the Linnean Society, on 

 November 21, 1861. Dealing with South American resemblances, and 

 especially with the examples he had observed in the valley of the 

 Amazons, Bates suggested the well-known hypothesis of the advan- 

 tageous likeness of a rare and palatable "mimic "for some conspicuous 

 and abundant " model " inhabiting the same locality. In a few years 

 Bates' conclusions w^ere supported by A. R. Wallace, writing upon 

 the butterflies of the Oriental region (1866), and by Roland Trimen, 

 upon those of Africa (1870). 



It is important to remember that Bates, in his original memoir, 

 spoke also of other likenesses between butterflies which he did not 

 attempt to explain by his hypothesis of mimicry, viz. the local 



