6 BUTTERFLIES IN DISGUISE 



all appearances a " palj)ably intentional likeness " 

 is impossible to question. But how explain it? 

 How could a butterfly change its appearance to 

 such a degree, its wings from a uniform color to a 

 banded, streaked, and spotted pattern, and at the 

 same time lengthen their form and extend the an- 

 tennae ? " Can the Ethiopian change his skin or 

 the leopard his spots ? " 



The answer, as Bates clearly saw, was to be 

 looked for in the same direction as when account- 

 ing for the assumption by animals of the color of 

 their surroundings. Both are produced in the 

 same way, and have the same cause and end. It 

 is only by keeping in view this tolerably obvious 

 truth that we can explain all the freaks of mim- 

 icry. " The specific, mimetic analogies," says 

 Bates, '' are adaptations, — phenomena of j)re- 

 cisely the same nature as those in which insects 

 . . . are assimilated in superficial appearance to 

 the vegetable or inorganic substance on which or 

 amongst which they live." 



To gain an idea, then, of the processes by which 

 the " staggering " examples of mimicry are pro- 

 duced, we must look first at the simplest forms of 

 protective resemblance. Go to the seashore and 

 observe the grasshoppers among the beach grass. 



