Papilio dardanus {mero'pe) and Acr/va johnstoni. 289 



the most primitive of the mimetic feaiale forms of 

 dardanus, and I have been deeply interested to find well- 

 marked rudimentary " tails " on two specimens from the 

 west coast. These examples of the sub-species mcroipe, % f. 

 hippocoon exist in the National Collection, the " tails " being 

 pronounced in one (Plate XIX, Fig. 2), distinct in the 

 other (Fig, 3). By kind permission of the authorities I am 

 able to submit the reproductions, referred to above, of Mr. 

 Alfred Robinson's beautiful photograph, made in the 

 Oxford University Museum. 



The sporadic occurrence of this ancestral feature in 

 association with precisely that form which still retains the 

 most primitive pattern is a difficulty to be surmounted by 

 those who have been inclined to minimize or even to deny the 

 occasional cropping-up by reversion of long-lost characters. 



The name Mppocoonoidcs has been given by Haase to 

 this form in the eastern and southern sub-species 

 tihulh's and eenea. This seems to me a most unnecessarily 

 complex and inconvenient procedure. The trophonins of 

 the western sub-species mcropc is at least as different from 

 that of the southern ccnea as are the two forms q{ liippocoon 

 from the same areas. It is pretty certain indeed that each 

 female form of every sub-species has certain peculiarities 

 and is not exactly like the same form of any other sub- 

 species. But this is quite sufficiently indicated by 

 prefixing to the female form name the sub-specific name. 

 Papilio dardanus sub-species meropc ^ f. Iiippocoon of the 

 west coast is naturally different from P. dardanus sub- 

 species ccnca $ f. liippocoon from Natal, and it is quite 

 unnecessary to express this by turning the last name into 

 Mppocoonoidcs. To do so without making corresponding 

 changes in the other forms is inconsistent ; to be con- 

 sistent in this respect is immensely to increase and to 

 increase uselessly an already tremendous terminology. 



The liippocoon forms are everywhere mimics of the 

 abundant and conspicuous Danaines, Amauris niavius of 

 the west and its sub-species dominicanus of the east coast 

 and the south. They also exhibit a strong secondary 

 mimetic approach to their Nymphaline co-mimics EaraUa 

 dnthedon of the west and E. walilbergi of the east and south 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc, Lond., 1002, p. 486). The 1iip)pocoon 

 form is probably dominant in all the sub-species of 

 dardanus except cenea and perhaps polytrophus; and it is 

 present in fair proportion in both these. 



