I shall confine myself to mentioning my contrary opinion when treating of 

 those butterflies in which other entomologists have adopted the existence of 

 mimicr)^ or suchlike phenomena, and to giving, in some well-known cases — as for 

 instance in that of the genus Kalxima — the special reasons on which my con- 

 tradiction is founded. 



There is only the following point that I should like further to mention here 

 in this respect. With many Pieridae the under-side of the hind-wings, as also 

 that part of the fore-wings, which in rest does not remain hidden under the 

 former, is strongly coloured. Sometimes the colour is of such nature as to 

 give rise to the supposition that in rest the butterfly thereby becomes only 

 slightly visible and that it must be looked upon as a protective colouring. 

 But often, especially in the Pieris and Tyca genera, in those places such 

 conspicuous colours are, however, seen, as to render this view untenable. 

 There would thus only remain the case of so-called warning-colours, and it 

 would then have to be presumed that butterflies in which this occured, are 

 uneatable; there is, however, nothing that bears this out, and it certainly 

 becomes but very slightly probable, if it be considered that there are also 

 several species belonging to the same genera, whose under-side is not so 

 glaringly coloured. Could these, on the contrary, be eatable? Such a great 

 difference between animals so closely related, is not so lightly to be presumed. 

 With the Pieris Pandione Hb. the said system of colouring is even met with 

 only in the case of part of the specimens, in the Leptis race it is not found. 

 Can it then be that that race alone is not in need of such protection? If so, 

 then why? There is, forsooth, nothing to show that this race, no more than 

 such species in which the same is the case, would in the least degree be 

 injured in regard to their chance of life; they are frequently very common and 

 therefore numerous in individuals. 



With this it is only a matter of phantasies. The origin of these colours, 

 as we shall see further on, is very sufficiently to be explained as a result of 

 the process of colour-evolution ; nor can it therefore, as has also lightly asser- 

 ted, be a result of the influence of light. This process does often seem to run 

 its course more slowly on the under-side than on the upper-side without one 

 knowing the reason of it; as far as this is concerned, we might, perhaps, 

 ascribe it to some influence of the light, to which the under-side is more 

 exposed than the upper one, or, maybe, to atmospherical influences, with 

 which the same is the case. For secondarily — as we shall see further on 

 Cunningham rightly conceives it— suchlike influences may make themselves 

 felt and also influence the course of the process referred to ; of this, forsooth, 

 other examples are known which I have discussed in my afore-mentioned 



