A STUDY OF MIMICRY 5 



and would greedily munch up any beetle or butterfly 

 given to him, and I used to bring him any insects that 

 I found imitated by others, to see whether they were 

 distasteful or not. I found he would never eat the Heli- 

 conii. He was too polite not to take them when they 

 were offered to him, and would sometimes smell them, 

 but invariably rolled them up in his hand, and dropped 

 them quietly again after a few minutes. A large spe- 

 cies of spider (Nephila) also used to drop them out of 

 its web when I put them into it. Another spider that 

 frequented flowers seemed to be fond of them, and I 

 have already mentioned a wasp that caught them to 

 store its nest with. There could be no doubt, however, 

 from the monkey's actions, that they were distasteful to 

 him." 



Bates very naturally argued that if these offen- 

 sive properties gave the Ithomyiae such exemption 

 from attack as enabled them to swarm in spite of 

 lazy habits and brilliant coloring, then other but- 

 terflies living in the same places would gain a cer- 

 tain amount of freedom from attack if their flight 

 and coloring so nearly resembled those of the offen- 

 sive species as actually to deceive insect-eating ani- 

 mals, even though they were themselves in no way 

 distasteful. 



The fact of a resemblance so close that it is to 



