DOUGLAS melin: nagra tankar om mimicry. 251 



chose bien remarquable que de voir la nature créer à côte- 

 lés uns des autres V Euplœa Niavhts. le Diadema dubia, et le 

 Papilio Westennanni, trois Lépidoptères qui se ressemblent 

 presque complètement par le part. le dessin, et la couleur, 

 quoique appartenant à des genres fort éloignés et de tribus 

 différentes.» 



Det var emellertid först den store brasiliefararen H. W. 

 Bates, som efter elva års studier vid Amazonfloden publi- 

 serade en mera omstörtande förklaring av dessa likheter. 

 Han vidrör i sitt arbete^ huvudsakligen några underfamiljer 

 av dagfjärilarna, Danainœ, Ithoiiiiinœ och Hcliconiinœ samt 

 familjen Picridœ. De förra sammanfattade han under namn 

 av Heliconidœ. Jag återger någia viktigare stycken: »The 

 most interesting part of the natural history of the Heliconidœ 

 is the mimetic analogies of which a great many of the spe- 

 cies are the objects. Mimetic analogies, it is scarcely 

 necessary to observe, are resemblances in external ap- 

 pearance, shape, and colours between members of 

 widely distinct families^ — — — A large number of 

 the species are accompanied in the districts they inhabit b}- 

 other species which counterfeit them in the way described. 

 The imitators belong to the following groups: — Papilio. 

 Piens, Euterpe, and Leptalis — — — I conclude that the 

 Heliconidœ are the objects imitated, because they all have 

 the same family facies, whilst the analogous species are dis- 

 similar to their nearest allies — perverted, as it were, to 

 produce the resemblance, from the normal facies of the ge- 

 nus or family to which they severally belong. The resem- 

 blance is so close, that it is only after long practice that 

 they true can be distinguished from the counterfeit, when on 

 the wing in their native forests. I was never able to dis- 

 tinguish the Leptalides from the species they imitated, ail- 

 though they belong to a family totally different in structure 

 and metamorphosis from the Heliconidœ, without examining 

 them closely after capture. They fly in the same parts of 

 the forest, and generally in company with the species they 

 mimic. — - — — It is not difficult to divine the meaning or 



' 1861. 



-' Fört. spärr. 



