264 [April, 



Mr. E. Saunders exhibited various Bupfestidm which he had compared with 

 the Fabrician types in the Banksian collection, and also those species that had be^n 

 considered by authors as identical with those of Pabricius, according to the descrip- 

 tions ; in many cases there were considerable discrepancies between these latter 

 and the actual types. 



Mr. Dunning announced the death of Mr. Wilson Armistead, of Leeds, who had 

 been engaged on a work on galls. 



LiNNEAN Society, March 5th, 1868 ; G. Bentham, Esq., F.R.S., President, in 

 the Chair. — A paper "On some remarkable Mimetic Analogies among African 

 Butterflies " was read by Mr. Roland Trimen. The author, after some remarks on 

 the length of time during which instances of extraordinarily close resemblance 

 between butterflies of wholly diSei-ent structure had been allowed to pass without 

 any attempt at explanation of their meaning, referred to Mr. Bates's well-known 

 treatise " On the Heliconidce of the Amazons Valley " as containing the only rea- 

 sonable elucidation of these remarkable phenomena that has been ofl"ered up to the 

 present time. He also alluded to the fact that a similar series of phenomena in 

 India and the Malayan Archipelago had been recorded by Mr. Wallace, who accounted 

 for them on the same theory as that advanced by Mr. Bates. Some general 

 remarks followed, showing that the conditions under which the cases of mimicry 

 occurred in Africa were quite similar to those recorded with respect to the two 

 other warm regions of the earth ; and the personal observations of the author in 

 Southern Africa were adduced in support of the statement that the butterflies that 

 are the objects of mimicry (the Danaidoe and AcroBidce) were protected races, and in 

 great measui'e exempt from persecution by birds and other devourers of insects. 

 Eleven of the more striking instances of imitation were tabulated and described in 

 detail by Mr. Trimen ; the most remarkable of which is perhaps the case of Papilio 

 Merope, a butterfly that, according to the author's belief, presents in Africa four 

 forma of female (all very widely difiering from the male), three of which are 

 manifest niimickers of three prevalent species of Danais ; while in Madagascar 

 a local race of the same Papilio occurs in which the female diSers but slightly from 

 the male. 



The results of an examination of the conditions under which the cases of 

 mimicry occurred were then briefly enumerated, as tending in every respect to 

 confirm Mr. Bates's view that such imitations are brought about by natural 

 selection, i.e., by the perpetual preservation of individuals possessing any protective 

 variation of colouring and outline approximating them in aspect to the defended 

 J)anmd(B or AerceidcB, and the destruction of all those not favoured in like manner, 

 — and by the gradual development of the advantageous characters by inheritance 

 during numerous generations. 



The paper concluded with the expression of the author's conviction of the 

 harmonious relation existing between the theory of the mutability and gi-adual 

 origin of species and what is now universally admitted as regards inorganic matter, 

 viz., that geological changes, however profound, are the result of the gradual 

 operation of the forces and agencies still at work under our eyes, and not of vast 

 convulsions of nature or general cataclysms. 



