412 Mr. W. J. Kaye's Notes on the dominant Milllerian 



is flanked throughout its entire length with heavy forest 

 containing greenheart, wallaba, and mora, besides a vast 

 number of other less known trees. 



The forest itself is dark and gloomy and throughout 

 the greater part of the year excessively damp owing to a 

 superabundant rainfall. The character of the vegetation 

 is always the same as even in the dry season the trees are 

 never otherwise than a fresh green. It is not surprising 

 therefore that practically the whole of the Lepidoptera, 

 excepting of course the several species of MoijjJw, present 

 a very uniform sombre tone of coloration. Even the very 

 fine and brightly-coloured Heliconius catharinsc, Hcliconius 

 astydamia and Heliconius egcria do not strike one in their 

 surroundings as particularly gaudy, and one is bound 

 largely to admit the assertion of A. H. Thayer in his 

 memoir in Trans. Ent. Soc. 1903, p. 553, that many species 

 we call conspicuous are not really so in their surroundings. 

 It must however have been quite impossible for Nature 

 to have, evolved such minutely close resemblance in 

 unrelated groups without the aid of Miillerian mimicry. 

 It is impossible to imagine that say an Erycinid butterfly 

 Esthemopsis scricina, should have arrived at the identical 

 colour and markings of a Syntomid moth Agyrta micilia 

 purely and simply by the process of syncriptic selection. 

 It is the minutest details in the coloration that dispel 

 such a probability : moreover in certain cases, as Prof. 

 E. B. Poulton has cited, I could definitely state that 

 butterflies settled on most " unsuitable " flowers for their 

 protection. A good example is found in the Lycorsea,- 

 MeliniBa,-Helieonivs group that frequents the white 

 flowers of the plant Eupatoriiim inacro'pliylluin. This 

 becomes a most valuable piece of evidence, as the species 

 frequenting these flowers form one of the most extensive 

 of all the groups that we are in the habit of calling 

 Miillerian. Although this Lycorma,-Meliniea,-Hcliconius, 

 etc., group is by far the largest and most dominant, there are 

 many other groups in the region : in fact the vast majority 

 of the individuals belong to one or other of a " coterie " of 

 similarly coloured species. In the Hespcridm there are one 

 or two conspicuous examples of synaposematic coloration, 

 and the Erycinidm offer some examples, and it is only 

 in the Lycmnid^ that there appears to be an absence of it ; 

 this bears out exactly what Prof. Poulton said in the 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. 1902, p. 500. It should however be 



