iQog] Mimicry in the Butterflies of North America 231 



all confined to tropical i\merica. Adelpha is separated from the 

 closely allied northern genus Limenitis by the hairiness of the 

 eyes in front. Calif ornica is by this character as well as its more 

 northern range associated with the heterogeneous assemblage 

 ''Limenitis,'' which so much requires a thorough revision. In 

 adopting this view I accept the position assigned to the species 

 by Scudder in 1875.^- 



Closely allied to calif ornica, of Oregon, California, and Nevada, 

 is L. hredowi (Hlibn.) of Arizona, Mexico, and Guatemala. A 

 much needed investigation is the determination whether these 

 two forms meet, and interbreed along the line of contact. 



The southern species or sub-species hredowi, is associated in 

 Mexico and Guatemala with many true species of Adelpha of 

 which no less than thirty-one extend into Central America. To 

 these it, and to a less extent the northern californica, bear much 

 likeness, especially to A. dyonysa (Hew.), massilia (Feld), lerna 

 (Hew.), axid fessonia (Hew.). This likeness is probably a mime- 

 tic resemblance which extends beyond the range of the models 

 into Arizona, and, with diminished effect, still further north into 

 the allied sub-species. Although the details of the resemblance 

 leave little doubt that this interpretation is correct for the south- 

 ern hredoivi, it is possible that californica represents an ancestral 

 form connecting the Adelphas with Limenitis, a form left isolated 

 and comparatively unchanged in the north, ^^ while its southern 

 allies have been modified by the presence of the dominant 

 Adelphas. At any rate in one feature neither sub-species appear 

 to be mimetic, viz., in the yellowish tint of the conspicuous band 

 crossing both wings; for in all the Central American Adelphas 

 at all resembling them, this marking is pure white or bluish- white. 

 We cannot hope to determine how far the pattern of californica 

 is ancestral until the structural relationships and the early stages 

 of Limenitis in the widest sense and Adelpha have been most 

 minutely in\-estigated. 



Limenitis lorqiiini, occurring with L. californica in Nevada, 

 California, and Oregon, also extends far north of this species into 

 British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Among all the North 

 American species of Limenitis it is the one which comes nearest 

 to the Old World forms, as Scudder recognized when he included 

 it with the European L. populi in the genus Najas, separating all 



^'-Btdl. Buffalo Soc. X. Sc. (Feb., IST.")), 283. 

 *^ See, however, p. 234-5. 



