1015] on Mimicry and Butterflies iMo 



form (meriones) with a female like itself, possessed on the mainland 

 of Africa females entirely nnlike the male, and mimicking three 

 different distasteful Danaine butterflies. These different forms and 

 others have now been bred from known female parents bv (t. F. Leigh, 

 W. A. Lamborn, G. D. H. Carpenter, and C. F. M. Swpinerton. 



G. A. K. ^larshall, in 1902, suggested that two East African 

 Nymphaline butterflies, with male and female alike {Hypolimnas 

 wahlbergi and H. mima), mimicking respectively two Danaine butter- 

 flies with very different patterns {Amauris niavius dominicanus and 

 A. echeria)^ were only two forms of a single species. Both have now 

 been bred from the same female parent by A. D, Millar (recently 

 confirmed in Natal by E. E. Piatt), while the corresponding forms 

 of the West have been bred again and again in a very extensive 

 series of experiments by W. A. Lamborn. In these breedings, as 

 well as in the experiments on PapiUo dardanus, a Mendelian relation- 

 ship between the mimetic forms was indicated by the results obtained. 



Dr. Karl Jordan, of the Tring Zoological Museum, extended the 

 above results into a wide generalization as to the relationship 

 between models and mimics. By accurate and detailed anatomical 

 investigations he proved that it is common, in all tropical countries 

 that are rich in butterfly life, for two or more distinct species with 

 different patterns to be resembled by the different forms of a single 

 mimicking species. The most striking example in which he proved 

 this relationship to exist, belonged to the African Nymphaline genus 

 Pseudacrsea. A number of Fseudacrseas, supposed to be species, 

 were found on the AVest Coast, mimicking large Acraeas of the genus 

 Planema ; other different Pseudacrsea mimics of Planemas occurred 

 in Uganda ; another in British East Africa ; another in Natal. Dr. 

 Jordan discovered that all these mimetic forms were anatomically 

 inseparable, thus reaching the conclusion that all the Pseudacrseas 

 of this group were the mimetic forms of a single species described by 

 Linnaeus from the West coast as P. eurytus. The startling nature 

 of this result becomes manifest when we remember that one of these 

 forms in Uganda has a male very different from its female, while 

 two other forms in the same locality have the sexes alike. It was. 

 therefore, of the utmost importance to test the inference from 

 anatomy by the method of breeding. The late A. D. Millar had 

 successfully bred the Natal species, but this being of a single form, 

 although with some of the females unlike their males, did not serve as 

 a test." Finally, however, in 1912 and 1918, G. I). H. Carpenter 

 succeeded in breeding several families from known parents. This 

 work, carried on in Bugalla, one of the Sesse Islands in the N.AV. 

 of the Victoria Nyanza, conclusively proved that Dr. Jordan was 

 entirely correct in his conclusions. 



Another line of investigation which has been extensively pursued 

 in recent years is the geographical distribution of both models and 

 mimics, together with changes that are found in various parts of the 



