92 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



victim of the experiment itself is none the better off for its warning 

 colouring, but its sacrifice has probably saved the lives of many 

 others. The more general the particular type of coloration, the 

 fewer subjects for experiment are required, whereas, if each separate 

 species adopted a distinctive danger signal, they would each liave 

 to pay toll for the education of their mutual enemies. 



Such Miillerian associations of self -protected insects are not quite 

 so conspicuous in Ceylon as in some other countries, notably in 

 Africa and South America, but we have a few instances. 



Thus, amongst the butterflies we find two species {Danais 

 chrysi'ppus and Hypolimnas misippus) belonging to distinct families 

 (the Danaince and Nymphalince respectively) that are practically 

 indistinguishable except by the most close examination. In the 

 second species it is curiously the female only that has adopted 

 the warning colour. The male is such a different lookmg insect that 

 the relationship of the two sexes would never be suspected. A still 

 more remarkable fact is that there are two varieties of the Danais 

 and two corresponding varieties of the female Hypolimnas. 



Yet another species of another family {Telchinia violce) has 

 somewhat the same general appearance. Though the similarity is 

 not so complete, this insect probably reaps some advantage from 

 its partial resemblance to the other two. 



Four other Danaine butterflies (all different species of Euploea) 

 and a species of Papilio form another associated group. Here, 

 again, we have the remarkable coincidence that the Papilio 

 has two very distinct varieties, one of which resembles the Euploeas, 

 while the other has the likeness of another self-protected species 

 {Danais septentrionis). 



A common type of warning colour, found in nearly all parts 

 of the world, consists of a uniform reddish tint in front, 

 followed by a more or less sharply defined hmder part. The mem- 

 bers of this group comprise various species of beetles, bugs, wasps, 

 flies, and mt)ths. 



Under protective mimicry may be classed the menacing markings 

 that have been adopted by many insects. 



{Fig. 8.) The most common form of this is the development of 

 eye-like markings on various parts of the body. The true eyes of an 

 insect are usually inconspicuous, but the ocellated spots — the sham 

 eyes — found on the wings of so many butterflies and moths attract 

 attention at once by their intense colouring and disproportionate size. 

 Though in some cases these specialized markings may serve the pur- 

 pose of distracting the attention of a formidable enemy from a vital to 

 a non- vital part, as by allowing an insect to escape from a bird with 

 the comparatively unimportant loss of a fragment of wing, in others 

 the eye-spots have a more directly protective function. ■ We have 

 in Ceylon a particular kind of praying mantis that preys principally 

 upon butterflies. I have kept a living specimen of this mantis in a 



