502 MR. H. W. BATES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA 



strict refei'ence to the geographical relations of tlieir varieties. Many closet naturalists, 

 who receive disconnectedly the different varieties in any group, treat them all as inde- 

 pendent species : l)y such a proceeding, it is no wonder that they have faith in the 

 absolute distinctness and immutability of species. 



The sexes in the Jleliconidce very rarely differ in colours. Secondary sexual characters 

 of another description occui-, however, very generally in the Danaoid group. The 

 males, in all the genera but two {Lyeorea and Ituna) of this section, are furnished with a 

 pencil or fringe of long hairs near the costal edge of the hind ^vings on the upper sur- 

 face. It sometimes arises from the bottom of a shallow horny cup sitviated between the 

 costal and subcostal nervures ; the hairs are long, soft, and adpressed. I was unable to 

 discover any use in this structure ; it seemed not to be under the control of the insect. 

 There is no movement in flight, or position in repose, peculiar to the male sex, which 

 might require an instrument to hold the wings together — a function wliich the position of 

 the bail's, in the place where the fore wing overlaps the hind wing, suggests to the mind. 

 I believe the ajjpendage must be considered as an outgrowth of the male oi'ganization, 

 which is not in this case applied to any especial purpose : it may l)e taken to be of the 

 same nature as the pencil of hairs on the breast of the male Turkey. Growths of one 

 kind or other, on the surface of the wings, peculiar to the male sex, are frequent in 

 Butterflies : in Denials the males have a small horny excrescence on the disk of the 

 hind wings, which, considering the near relationshiji proved to exist between the two 

 groups, I take to be homologically the same as the pencil of hairs in the Danaoid Heli- 

 conidcc. In the genus Davonia, belonging to the family Brassolidce, the males in some 

 species have a fringe of hairs near the abdominal border ; in others, a long pencil of the 

 same on the disk ; and, again, in others, instead of these appendages, a thickened plate 

 on the inner margin of the hind wings. 



The most interesting part of the natural history of the Ileliconidcc is the mimetic 

 analogies of which a great many of the species are the ol)jects. Mimetic analogies, it is 

 scarcely necessary to oljserve, are resemblances in external appearance, shape, and colours 

 l)etween members of widely distinct families : an idea of what is meant may be formed 

 by supposing a Pigeon to exist with the general figure and plumage of a HaAvk. Most 

 modern authors who have written on the group have mentioned the striking instances 

 of this kind of resemblances exhibited with reference to the Heliconidw ; but no attempt 

 has lieen made to describe them fully, nor to explain them. I will give a short account 

 of the leatling facts, and then mention some circumstances which seem to throw light 

 (Ml their true natui'e and origin. 



A large number of the species are accompanied in the districts they inhahit l)y other 

 species which counterfeit them in the way descril)ed. Tlie imitators belong to the following 

 groups: — Papilio, Pieris, Eulerpe, and Leptidis (fam. Papilionidce), Protogonins {Nipn- 

 p/a/lid(e), Illajiiicis (J'Jrj/einida'), Castnia [Castniadcc), Dioptis, Pericopis, llijeloslit, and 

 other genera {PiomhijridiC Motlis)*. I conclude thai the IlcUconiihe are the objects 

 iiiiil((led, liccausc they all have the same family facies, wliilst tlie analogous species are 

 dissimilar to their nearest allies — perverted, as it Avere, to i)roduc(> the resemblance, from 



* Tlir ;icconi|iiui_viii,;; Tahlc, in which a iiuiiihcr of the most striking of these are arranged in ])arallel cohiinns, will 

 give some idea of the extent (o wliieli tins system of imitation l)revails. 



